WHAT WOMEN
CAN EARNfc22
LIBRARY
, OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Class
WHAT WOMEN
CAN EARN
OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN AND THEIR
COM PENS A TION
GRACE H. DODGE
THOMAS HUNTER
MRS. MARY J. LINCOLN
S. S. PACKARD
MRS. A. M. PALMER
BY
MAJOR J. B. POND
MRS. MARGARET E. SANGSTER
MRS. CANDACE WHEELER
MARY E. WILKINS
HELEN M. WINSLOW
AND OTHERS
Essays on All the Leading Trades and Professions in America in
Which "Women Have Asserted Their Ability with Data
as to the Compensation Afforded in Each One.
»
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1898,
Bv THE TRIBUNE ASSOCIAIION
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PREFACE.
A FEW of the writers of the signed essays in this volume
are men, distinguished in special vocations and known
throughout the United States. The others are women,
nearly all of them prominent, and all, if in business, suc-
cessful, who say nothing out of the scope of their own
observation, who infuse their own delightful personality
into their discussions, and who seem sincerely desirous of
aiding such of their sisters as aspire to enter practical
occupations.
The opportunity for self-support by women — the chance
to make a living — is the point chiefly dwelt upon in the
following pages. The nature of the work in each trade,
the preparation required, the cost of training and appren-
ticeship, the need of economy of strength as well as of
money, the places where instruction may be obtained, the
best means of attaining success, and, finally, the probable
remuneration, are explained clearly and sympathetically.
This publication is the first attempt, in a practical and
comprehensive way, to bring before women who must face
the necessity of struggle for a livelihood, and before the
public at large, the importance and character of woman's
work in the various trades and professions in which she
has already asserted her ability. It is intended as a use-
ful guide, both to those who are launched and to those
who stand at the threshold of a career, perhaps even yet
hesitating in which direction to proceed. The work will
show what is within the scope of woman's powers in the
world of business, her chances of success, and the com-
212051
iv PREFACE.
pensation which she may expect. So concisely are all the
topics treated that any woman who reads the series will
be able, guided by her own judgment as to ability, as well
as by inclination, to choose the work upon which she can
enter with th Direst prospect of success.
Nothing in ti present age is more distinctive than the
tendency of woman to invade every hopeful field of wage-
earning and to reach a place in every intellectual arena.
Nearly every trade and profession is open to her. There
are, indeed, a few places which she cannot fill, but gov-
ernmental reports show quite conclusively that hundreds
of vocations are hers if she choose to follow them, and
for many of them she is better adapted than man.
Recognising an actual necessity of the situation, woman
is now anxious for a thoroughly satisfactory equipment.
She is no longer content to do slipshod work and receive
the inferior pay which goes with such labour. Secure in
the assurance that she does not sacrifice womanly charms
or womanly privileges in earning her daily bread, she
now shows herself as anxious to profit by the facilities of
technical and other special schools as young men are.
And nothing is more marked, at this time, in all parts of
the country, than the fact that women with proper train-
ing are making themselves formidable competitors with
men in a great variety of practical occupations, in which
twenty-five years ago they were scarcely known, and in
some of them are actually displacing men.
The subject of " Occupations of Women " has been
treated very ably and extensively in the Woman's Page of
The New York Tribune during the past year ; and the
publishers of this volume desire to express their thanks to
the Editor of The Tribune for permission to use some of
i!ie articles included here which have appeared in that
department of the paper.
INDEX TO CONTENT*1 ''
PAGE
ADVERTISEMENT WRITING. See " Trade and Busi-
ness Occupations."
"A QUAINT OCCUPATION." 238
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION.
" A Beaux Arts for Women," the Masqueray atelier. . 107
" Compensation of Architects." ..... 98
"Fascinating as an Art," an interview on wood-carving. 103
" Making Homes Beautiful," by Miss MARY E. TILLING-
HAST, superintendent of the decoration of the Hotel
Savoy, and assistant in the decoration of the Van-
derbilt mansion. 98
"She Plans New Buildings," by Miss ALICE J. HANDS,
who writes from experience gained in the construc-
tion of model tenements and suburban cottages. . 94
AUTHORSHIP.
" Fiction a Hopeful Field," by MRS. MARGARET E.
SANGSTER, Editor of " Harper's Bazaar." . .21
"Good Wits, Pen and Paper," by Miss MARY E. WIL-
KINS, famous as a story teller and delineator of
quaint characters, who gained her reputation by
perseverance in the face of many discouragements. 28
" Journalism Has Charms," by MRS. CYNTHIA WEST-
OVER ALDEN. 30
" Profits of Authorship." 38
" Secrets of Pen-Craft," by MRS. MARGARET McCuL-
LOUGH WILLIAMS, writer of Southern stories and
journalist, who describes the technical part of writ-
ing for the magazines. ...... 24
"To the Would-Be Authors," by Miss HELEN M.
WINSLOW, writer of serial stories, a journalist of
extended experience and now Editor of •' The Club
Woman." ......... 36
vi INDEX TO CONTENTS.
PAGE
BOARDING-HOUSES. See " Household Science. "
BOOKBINDING. See " Industrial Arts."
CERAMICS. See " Industrial Arts."
CLERKS AND OPERATORS.
" Be Your Own Typewriter," a description of the Blick-
ensderfer machine. . 152
" Clerks in Public Offices." 169
" Clerks Who Have Risen." 174
" Dots, Dashes and Switchboard," the work of a teleg-
rapher, by MRS. M. E. RANDOLPH, who qualified
as telegrapher in 1862 in Massachusetts, became
manager of an office in New York City in 1864, and
has been connected with Western Union headquar-
ters since 1884 159
" Girls in Clerical Work," by the late PROFESSOR S. S.
PACKARD, a famous instructor, the writing of whose
essay on this subject was one of the last acts of his
busy career 141
" Private Secretaries 1 56
4 ' Pay of Telephone Girls 169
" Soft Answer to Hello," a paper on Telephone Girls, by
HERBERT LAWS WEBB, an expert in this line, who
explains minutely the duties of a girl who wishes to
succeed 162
" Typewriting Is a Real Art," by Miss MARY BOUR-
CHIER SANFORD, an expert typewriter, who has
lately added to her reputation by writing two novels
on Canadian life. . 145
" Wage Earning with the Pen." 158
" Women in Post-offices," by the HON. CORNELIUS
VAN COTT, Postmaster of New York. . . .171
COMPANION. See " Household Science."
COOKING. See " Household Science."
DAIRY WORK. See " Realm of Agriculture."
DECORATION. See " Architecture."
DENTISTRY. See " Learned Professions."
DESIGNING. See " Industrial Arts."
INDEX TO CONTENTS. vii
PAGE
DRAMATIC ART.
" Dramatic Training in College." . . . . -55
" Earnings of the Stage," by MRS. A. M. PALMER, wife
of a theatrical manager, and herself a theatrical
manager, president of the Professional Woman's
League 49
" Miss Ida Benfey, the American Story Teller." . . 52
" Professional Reading.'' 51
" Sixty Years on the Stage," by MRS. W. G. JONES,
member of all the old-time good stock companies in
New York City, leading lady at the Bowery Theatre
when it was considered the best in town, the original
Eliza, when " Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played for the
first time in New York, and later Topsy. . . 39
" Thespis Is a Hard Master," by MRS. ELEANOR GEOR-
GEN, instructor of elocution and acting in the Ameri-
can Academy of Dramatic Arts for thirteen years,
and now connected with the Berkeley Lyceum. . 44
DRESSING STORE WINDOWS.
DRESSMAKERS. See " Industrial Arts " and " Society
Women in Business."
ENGRAVING. See " Industrial Arts."
EQUESTRIANISM. See " Trade and Business Occupa-
tions."
FACTORY GIRLS. See " Industrial Arts."
FARMING. See " Realm of Agriculture."
FINANCIERS. See "Trade and Business Occupations"
and " Society Women in Business."
FRUIT DRYING. See " Realm of Agriculture."
GOLDFISH FARMING. See " Realm of Agriculture."
"GROWING FIELDS OF WORK." . . . . 106
HORTICULTURE. See " Realm of Agriculture."
HOUSE DECORATION. See " Architecture and Decora-
tion."
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE.
" Dignity of the Good Cook," by Miss EMILY HUNT-
viii INDEX TO CONTENTS.
PAGE
INGTON, a teacher in the New York Cooking School,
a pioneer instructor and authority. . . . in
"Domestic Science," by MRS. MARY J. LINCOLN, of
Boston, first principal of the Boston Cooking School,
author of the " Boston Cook Book," and culinary
editor of "The American Kitchen Magazine." . 125
" Housekeeping a Science, by MRS. LED YARD STEVENS,
manager of the Bureau of Social Requirements in
New York City 114
" In a Manual Training School." 139
" Keeping Boarders an Art," a delightful essay, by
Miss MARY E. J. KELLEY, long vice-president of
the Social Reform Club, member of the Council of
Mediation and Conciliation, and a writer on eco-
nomics and labour topics 119
" Sanitary Laundry." 137
" Wages of the Cook." . . . . . . .138
" What Amateurs Can Do." 133
" Work of the Companion." . . . . . 135
INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
"Art Designing a Trade," by MRS. CANDACE WHEELER,
a conspicuous authority on the decoration of papers
and fabrics 240
" Art Work to Make Money," an article on Engraving,
by Miss Lois KNIGHT, a practical and advanced
engraver, whose name in 1897 was attached as en-
graver to 70,000 illustrated catalogues for silver
warehouses 250
" Bookbinding as a Craft," by the late EVELYN HUNTER
NORDHOFF, the last opinion on the subject which
she ever gave. 269
''Competent Proofreaders," by THEODORE L. DE
VINNE, the greatest of American printers. . . 263
" Dressmaking." 259
" Factory Girls." 275
" Fairy Creations in Lace," by R. T 279
INDEX TO CONTENTS. ix
" Industrial Design," by MRS. FLORENCE ELIZABETH
CORY, founder and head of Mrs. Cory's Original
School of Industrial Arts for Women. . . . 245
" Outlook for Ceramists," by MRS. L. VANCE PHILLIPS,
of Los Angeles, Cal., an authority on this art and a
teacher ' 264
" Small Manufactures." 273
"Taste in Trimming Hats," by Miss BESSIE ANNIE
LOSEY, teacher of millinery for a Young Women's
Christian Association 253
"The Making of Book Covers." . . . .272
"Wages of Milliners." 258
" Wages of Seamstresses." 263
JOURNALISM. See " Authorship."
LACE-MAKING. See " Industrial Arts."
LAUNDRY. See " Household Science."
LAW. See " Learned Professions."
LAW BOOK AGENTS. See " Trade and Business Occupations."
LEARNED PROFESSIONS.
" Dentistry as a Profession," by DR. MARGARITA A.
STEWART, M. D., D. D. S., a practitioner for twelve
years, graduate of the Philadelphia School of Den-
tistry, post-graduate of the New York Dental School,
and holder of a degree as practising physician. . 196
"Earnings in Dentistry." 202
" Girl Disciples of Galen," by DR. SARAH J. WILLIAMS
VANDERBEEK, a country girl who has worked her
way to prominence in medicine 180
" How Nurses Are Trained," by Miss IRENE H. SUT-
LIFFE, director of the Training School of the New
York Hospital 203
"Miss , Searcher for Patents." .... 195
*' Patent Soliciting," by Miss EDITH J. GRISWOLD,
solicitor 191
" The Fin De Siecle Portia," by MRS. FLORENCE DAN-
GERFIELD POTTER, a graduate of Cornell Univer-
sity, formerly assistant to the District-Attorney of
x INDEX TO CONTENTS.
PAGE
New York City, later assistant to the Superinten-
dent of Buildings, and now a practitioner of cor-
poration law. . . . . . . . .184
"Women as Missionaries." 202
" Women as Opticians." 208
" Women Pastors," by the REV. ALICE K. WRIGHT,
who is one of them, and the wife also of a minister. 176
LECTURE FIELD.
" Illustrated Lecturing." .70
" Lyceum Stars," by MAJOR J. B. POND, the veteran
manager under whose direction dates have been
made for women for the last thirty years. . . 66
" Stars of Lesser Degree." .76
" What Lecturers Earn," by ALONZO FOSTER, mana-
ger of one of the prominent lyceum bureaus. . . 74
LIBRARIANS.
" An Evironment of Books," by Miss ADELAIDE R.
HAASE, attache of the Astor Library, who made
the first attempt to collect for the United States
Government a file of its own publications. . .211
" In Circulating Libraries," by Miss PAULINE LEIPZI-
GER, who has charge of several libraries in New
York 216
LIFE INSURANCE. See " Trades and Business Occupa-
tions."
MAIL CARRIERS
MARKET GARDENS. See " Realm of Agriculture."
MEDICINE. See " Learned Professions."
MILLINERS. See " Industrial Arts " and " Society WTo-
men in Business."
MINISTRY. See " Learned Professions."
MUSIC TEACHERS.
OIL PAINTING. See " Pictures and Statues."
OPTICIANS. See " Learned Professions."
PATENT SOLICITING. See " Learned Professions."
PHOTOGRAPHY. See " Pictures and Statues " and
" Society Women in Business."
INDEX TO CONTENTS. xj
PAGE
PHYSICAL TRAINING. By MRS. GENEVIEVE STEB-
BINS, principal of the New York School of Expres-
sion, author of " System and Expression," " Dy-
namic Breathing," " Society Gymnastics " and the
" Genevieve Stebbins System of Physical Training." 234
PIANO PLAYING.
" Accompanying as an Art " ; the school of Miss Mabel
McCall 91
" Begin Early," by MRS. KATE S. CHITTENDEN,
lecturer on the synthetic system of teaching instru-
mental music 80
"Does Piano Study Pay?" by MRS. MILTONELLA
BEARDSLEY, soloist and teacher, once connected
with Theodore Thomas's Orchestra. . . -85
" Playing and Teaching," by MRS. M. AUGUSTA BOS-
WORTH, a specialist in piano technique for many
years in Chicago and New York 88
"The Tuning of Pianos." 84
" The Literary Musicale," a description of the entertain-
ments of Mrs. Stella Hadden Alexander and Miss
Emma Elise West 90
PICTURES AND STATUES.
" A Talent for Sculpture," by Miss ENID YANDELL, the
young sculptor, who has just finished a bust of
Emma Willard for Mrs. Russell Sage. . . .226
" At the World's Fair in Chicago." .... 233
" Pictorial Illustration," by IZORA C. CHANDLER, artist
in black and white, illustrator of books, critic and
author. . 222
" Portrait Painting Hard," by Miss HELEN WATSON
PHELPS, artist and librarian 221
" Rockwood Employs Women," by GEORGE G. ROCK-
WOOD, one of the leading photographers for a gen-
eration in New York City 228
"Women as Oil Painters," by MRS. EMILY MARIA
SCOTT, secretary of the Water Colour Club and one
of the best rose painters in the United States. . 218
xii INDEX TO CONTENTS.
POST-OFFICE EMPLOYEES. See «• Clerks and Opera- *
tors."
PRIVATE SECRETARIES. See •• Clerks and Operators."
PROOFREADERS. See " Industrial Arts."
READING. See " Dramatic Art."
REALM OF AGRICULTURE.
" An Authority on Fruit Drying." 322
" A Prosperous Sheep Raiser." 310
"Cash in Cows, Pigs, Hens," by MRS. JANET E.
RUNTZ-REES, of Wallingford, Conn., practical
farmer 316
"Goldfish Farming." 323
" Horticultural Fields." 323
"Market Gardens Profitable," by RUTH TITUS, a
Quaker, of Flushing, Long Island, a student and ex-
Pert. 315
"Stock Breeding." 321
" Why Not Raise Cows ? " by MRS. IONE A. VAN GOR-
DER, conductor of a creamery in South America,
where she had the management of one thousand
cows and rode in daylight and darkness over the
pampa 304
" Women Farmers," by Miss VIRGINIA H. HALL. . 31 1
SALESGIRLS. See " Trade and Business Occupations."
SANITARY LAUNDRY. See " Household Science."
SCHOOL OFFICERS. See " Teaching."
SEWING. See " Industrial Arts " and " Society Women in
Business."
SHOPPERS. See "Household Science" and "Society
Women in Business."
SINGING. See " Vocal Music."
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS.
" A Quaint and Daring Idea," the millinery establish-
ment of Miss Harman Brown, in the former loft of a
stable 283
" A Real Estate Owner in San JoseY' . . . .296
INDEX TO CONTENTS. xiii
PAGE
" A Studio for Colour Study," a description of the enter-
prise of Mrs. E. N. Vanderpoel 300
" An Artistic Shopper," the work of Mrs. Frederick E.
Parsons, in purchasing for cultured people outside of
the metropolis. 289
" Dainty Negligees," Miss Carroll's original and attrac-
tive shop 293
"Director of Weddings." 299
" Expert in Fashions." 288
" From Ballroom to Shop," Miss Schroeder's success in
making gowns 286
"Lessee of a Music Hall." 292
" Special Photography," the art of Miss Floride Green,
in the taking of photographs 297
" Women in Banking." 285
STENOGRAPHERS. See " Clerks and Operators."
STORE WINDOW DRESSING 347
TEACHING.
" Heads of Girls' Schools," by Miss LOUISE FISCHER, of
New Brunswick, N, J., pupil of Emma Willard
School, teacher in New York City, and daughter of
Prof. Gustavus Fischer, of Rutgers College. . . 5
"Noble Array of Teachers," by THOMAS HUNTER,
president of New York Normal College, who makes
a plea for equal compensation to men and women . i
" Private Schools," by MRS. J. C. HAZEN, principal of
Mrs. Hazen's Suburban School for Girls. . . 17
" Qualities of the Teacher," by Miss LUCY A. YENDES,
formerly a teacher, now editor of an educational
journal and lecturer . . . . . . .n
" Women as School Officers. . . . . .19
TELEGRAPHERS. See " Clerks and Operators."
TELEPHONE GIRLS. See " Clerks and Operators."
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS.
" Advertisement Writing." 340
" Clever Law Book Agents." 348
" Dressing Store Windows." 347
xiv INDEX TO CONTENTS.
PAGB
" Equestrianism," by MRS. EMILY S. BEACH, eques-
trienne, who instructs pupils in the summer time in
Newport, R. I., and in New York City every winter. 349
" Insure Your Life ! Why Not ? " A discussion of wo-
men solicitors for life insurance, by Miss MINNIE
TUMBLESON BROWN, one of the most successful of
her class. ........ 324
"One Servants' Agency." 330
" Professional Shoppers." 352
" Salesgirls in New York," by Miss GRACE H. DODGE,
educational reformer, once a School Commissioner
in New York City, daughter of William E. Dodge,
and an earnest worker among the charities and
working-girls' clubs of New York City. . . . 335
" The West End Exchange." 327
" Wages of Salesgirls." 339
" Women as Financiers.'' ...... 330
" Workers in Glass." 353
TRAINED NURSES. See "Learned Professions."
TYPEWRITERS. See " Clerks and Operators."
VOCAL MUSIC.
"A Wide-Field for Sweet Voices.". . . . .64
" Beginners in Song Parts," by MRS. EMILIE L.FER-
NANDEZ, who supplies places for more chorus girls
than any other manager in the United States, phil-
anthropist, and an officer of the Professional Wo-
men's League 62,
" Music Teachers." • . 88
" Would She Be a Soprano ? " by Miss MARIE SEYMOUR
BISSELL, leading soprano in church choirs, and
trainer of such soloists as Sarah King Peck, Louise
Fay, Julian Sterling and George Hunt Ensworth. . 58,
WOOD CARVING, See " Architecture and Dec.orat.ipn."
WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN,
TEACHING.
NOBLE ARRAY OF TEACHERS.
Pedagogy for Women. — Feminine Tact and Maternal Gen-
tleness Needed for Young Children — Why Men Teach-
ers Get More Pay.
FOR children of both sexes under twelve or thirteen
years old women are more successful as teachers than
men. For many reasons, after this period, men are
better adapted for the management and instruction of
boys. Girls who have reached the age of sixteen should
be taught by both men and women teachers. Inasmuch
as the vast majority of the fourteen millions of children
enrolled in the public schools of the United States are
below the age of thirteen, it naturally follows that over
two-thirds of the teachers are women. This fact always
astonishes European visitors, for throughout the nations
of the Old World the reverse of this is true, the great
majority of the teachers being men, even in the lower
primary schools. It is gratifying to learn, however, that
in recent years in the more civilised nations of Northern
and Western Europe, especially in Great Britain, the
employment of women teachers is greatly on the increase.
It is the glory of the United States that order, peace
and good government are maintained not by a standing
army of soldiers, but by a standing army of four hundred
2 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
thousand teachers.^ whom nearly three hundred thou-
sand are women. As the women teachers instruct the
younger children, when impressions are most lasting and
when their characters are most easily formed — for " the
child is father to the man " — it follows that they perform
the principal work in making good, law-abiding citizens.
These noble women have been the propagandists of
honour, courage and patriotism.
It is a trite saying that great men have had great
mothers. Most men who have achieved success have
had some woman — mother, aunt, sister or some one
dearer — to spur them onward and upward. How many
men have received their inspiration from women
teachers the world has never known, never will know.
The late Richard Cobden, the distinguished Corn Law
leader, during his visit to the United States in 1861,
said, in a speech to the boys of the Thirteenth St. school,
that the most beautiful sight he saw in America was a
district school in Minnesota taught by a delicate young
woman who looked not more than eighteen, many of
whose pupils were farmers' sons — big, burly boys, any one
of whom might have seized her by the shoulders and
thrown her out of the window. He concluded with these
memorable words : " When I saw such obedience to law,
such perfect order, such conformity to rule under the
authority of a mere girl, I knew the Rebellion was
doomed and that the North would crush the South."
Mr. Cobden might have gone further and said it was
the public schools which made the great Republic, and
we might say to-day that it was the public schools,
mainly conducted by women, that led to American
triumph and glory at Manila and Santiago.
[ For children between fijve and thirteen women are
iaturally the best teachers, because the maternal instinct
TEACHING. 3
r makes them patient and sympathetic, and their quickness
of perception gives them a keener insight into character,
/ and hence they are better able and more willing to re-
\ spect the individuality of their pupils. It must be remem-
I bered that without this knowledge of each individual
\ pupil there can never be good, wholesome teacfeng.
L Women teachers are more tactful and considerate with
the younger children than men are, and it must be
1 admitted that they are, as a rule, more spiritual and con-
scientious. These are some of the reasons why in all
! the large cities four-fifths of the classes in the boys'
schools are taught by women.
I It is a singular fact that women's work in the schools
has never been properly appreciated, especially in the
important matter of compensation. After all is said and
done, the salary is the outward and visible sign of the im-
portance and dignity of the office.
Men teachers, as a rule, for similar work receive 30 per
cent, higher salaries than women, and in some places
more than 50 per cent.
In Commissioner Harris's report for 1895 we find the
following facts showing the difference in monthly salaries :
In New York men teachers receive an average of
$74.95 and women teachers $51.33, a difference in favour
of the men of 30 per cent.; in Massachusetts men receive
$128.55 an(3 women $48.38, less than one-half ; in Rhode
Island, men $101.83 and women $50.06; in Connecticut,
men $85. 58 and women $41.88. These States are gener-
ally ranked among the most enlightened in the country,
and yet this glaring injustice seems to pass unnoticed.
In Delaware the men teachers receive $36.60, the women
$34.08 ; in Maryland the men $48, the women $40.40; in
South Carolina the men $25.46, the women $22.32 ; in
Florida the men $35.50, the women $34.
4 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
From these figures it will be observed that when the
salaries of the sexes are very low they are nearly equal —
that is to say, when the salary of the man is beggarly
that of the woman reaches the verge of starvation and
cannot be reduced any lower.
An argument, if argument it may be called, commonly
used by school officials in favour of this unjust disparity
between the salaries of men and women who perform like
service is that men have usually families to support.
But why not carry this argument to a logical conclusion ?
If one man has a family of six persons he is entitled to
far higher compensation than a man who has a family of
three persons. And should he be so fortunate as to have
a family of nine, his salary ought to be increased three-
fold. The man who obtains additional compensation
solely on account of the size of his family is simply the
recipient of charity. Those who use this flimsy argument
against equal salary for equal work forget that thou-
sands of women teachers have also families to support —
invalid parents, widowed mothers and younger brothers
and sisters.
There is, however, one reason why men teachers
should receive higher salaries than women, and that is
that the supply of women teachers greatly exceeds the
demand, and the reverse is the case as regards the men.
We have not far to go to find the cause for this deplor-
able fact.
In the ups and downs of American life — rich to-day
and poor to-morrow — young women educated in " finish-
ing schools" (which never finish) are often suddenly
called upon to earn a living. They have no business
talent, they are unfit for literary work, they are ashamed
to do menial work, and hence they instinctively turn to
teaching as the one respectable calling open to them.
TEACHING. 5
They may have little practical education, no training
whatever and not even love for the work, but neverthe-
less they fancy they can teach. They can keep school
and the school will keep them until they can do better.
There is a great future for women teachers in the
United States. Normal colleges and schools, teachers'
institutes and normal departments of great universities,
to which may be added more enlightened superintendents,
have accomplished excellent results during the last ten
or fifteen years in elevating the teacher's vocation.
The study of psychology and its application to the
science and art of teaching have produced a superior
class of women teachers who can readily obtain desirable
places at good salaries.
THOS. HUNTER.
HEADS OF GIRLS' SCHOOLS.
Three of Them Who Were Notable for Strength of Character.
— Miss Louise Fischer Explains how Success Depends
on Personally Impressing Pupils.
IT has been said that a conscientious teacher, no matter
how successful she may appear to be, seldom becomes
rich in her calling. Nor is success to be judged by the
amount of money laid up, for there are other things more
important, one of which is the kind of woman that is
turned out. A teacher's influence is often greater than a
parent's. Of those, whose pupils have ever been anxious
to prolong her fame and extend to others the instruction
received from her, Emma Willard's name is perhaps
best known.
Such women as Mrs. Russell Sage, Mrs. John Munn,
6 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Miss Maria Mitchell and Miss Mary Knox, most of whom
were pupils of the honoured Emma Willard, the pioneer of
the higher education of women, have written so much
and so well of her that one who knew her only after she
had given her work into the hands of her noble daughter-
in-law, Mrs. John Willard, can scarcely do her justice.
In 1814, when she began her life as a teacher in Middle-
bury, Vt., she was already known, not only as an earnest
and intellectual but also as a learned and highly accom-
plished woman. Sixteen years before the college at
Holyoke was founded, in 1821, she opened a school for a
broader education for girls, and one that was far in
advance of the times. She evolved a new spirit in educa-
tiori| and through her it rose in the first half of the cen-
tury to be a sustaining social order. Her influence was
felt far and wide, and her boarding and day school in
Troy became famous, not only all over this country, but
in France, where Lafayette, who truly admired the
stately, noble woman, whose face showed her character,
had made it known. In England, too, where her histor-
ies were used, she was highly estimated.
Her philanthropy was as great as her learning, and no
one desirous of a good education ever appealed to her in
vain ; nor was there any difference shown between the
rich girl whose purse was lavishly supplied with money
and the poor one dependent on her bounty ; and no one
ever found out from her upon whom she bestowed her
benefits.
Much was made of public examinations, which were
conducted by the most celebrated professors from the
college. Everything was done upon a broad and thorough
plan, just as it is now in the new Emma Willard Seminary,
in Troy.
Her dress was never showy, but always rich and in
TEACHING. 7
perfect taste, for she understood the power which a fault-
less attire gives a teacher, not only over her pupils but
even over their parents and the world at large. She was
a member of the Episcopal Church, and was buried from
St. Paul's, in Troy, in 1870.
Perhaps no school in this country was ever larger, yet
at her death she was by no means a rich woman.
In Constance Fenimore Woolson's " Anne," Mrs. Van-
horn thus speaks of Mme. Moireau's school : " An estab-
lishment where the extreme of everything is taught, and
much nonsense is learned in the latest style."
Mme. Moireau is described as "a Frenchwoman, small
and old, with a thin, shrunken face and large features.
She wore a plain black satin gown, the narrow skirt
gathered in the old-fashioned style, and falling straight
to the floor. She was never a handsome woman even in
her youth, and she was now seventy-five years old ; yet
she was charming."
The character of Mme. Moireau was drawn from the
celebrated Mme. Chegaray, who came to New York dur-
ing the insurrection of the slaves in San Domingo, and
who established in Madison Avenue a fashionable school
for young women. The pupil Anne was Constance Feni-
more Woolson herself, who was considered a good scholar,
but rather eccentric. Her description of Mme. Chegaray
is true to life. The noted teacher was a woman of
marked character, and her school was for a long time
patronised by many of the best New York families, as
well as by rich Southerners. This was before the Civil
War. It was said that no matter how awkward a girl was
when she came there, when she left she was a graceful
and polished woman who had " learned to put on the right
clothes in the right way."
Other schools might have public examinations, and aim
8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
at higher education, but Mme. Chegaray knew nothing of
such innovations. She tried simply to make her pupils
gracefully feminine, and she accomplished much good in
a mannerless generation. She possessed that tact and
graciousness of mien which are not easily acquired, and
which are the qualities that have made Mrs. Cleveland
and Mrs. Hobart so helpful to their husbands. •
After the French and German fashion, her girls were
taught to address her with the affectionate " tante," and
when they came or left were kissed on both cheeks. All
her pupils were fond of her, for she had the wisdom to
know that it is detrimental to gain even a dog's ill-will.
She was always dressed in exquisite taste, like a real
Frenchwoman, but never used her clothes to disguise her
age.
Although the school was for so long the largest and
most expensive in the city, she died at the age of ninety-
eight, at the home of her old friends, the De Russeys, in
New Brunswick, N. J., a poor woman ; the two fortunes
which she had made in teaching had been spent upon her
relatives.
She died as she had lived, a faithful but by no means
bigotted Roman Catholic.
In the thirties the City Fathers of the good old Dutch
town of New Brunswick, N. J., felt the need of a thorough
school for girls. The college and preparatory school of
Rutgers provided adequate advantages for the boys, but
no one in that day would have allowed the girls to be
educated under the same roof. Even in the sixties Dr.
Howard Crosby shocked the community by proposing
such a thing, and to-day the girls can go no further than
the preparatory school. The townspeople wanted a wo-
man to teach their future women, and, as no one com-
petent for the position could be procured at home, a com-
TEACHING. 9
mittee was appointed to seek one elsewhere. In Darien,
Conn., a young girl, not yet twenty, was becoming known
as a teacher, and the report reached the slow old town
that she could make even the dullest pupil learn and the
most unruly behave ; that a tap from her switch brought
to order the most restless. In those days it was believed
that
" A woman, a dog or a walnut tree —
The more you beat them, the better they be."
A deputation, consisting of David Vail, Ephraim Smith
and a few others, therefore secured Hannah Hoyt's ser-
vices. The school building still stands on the corner of
George and Paterson Streets. It is now used as a post-
office, but for over forty years Miss Hoyt kept school
there.
It was the best-known and most-successful school that
New Jersey has ever had, and the boarders came from
every part of the country. In my day we found that she
cut her pupils more with her sharp tongue than with her
rod, although the lazy ones frequently had their ears
flipped by her nimble fingers. At the present day a
teacher whose temper is not more serene could hardly
succeed.
Miss Hoyt tried to keep dull pupils up with the bright
ones, much to the disadvantage of the latter. Her
method was something like that of the public schools, and
lessons were reviewed again and again, until even the
slowest knew them by heart. Indeed, she insisted upon
having the history, as well as most of the other lessons,
repeated word for word. Consequently, a book was
seldom finished, as this is slow work, but at the end of the
year it was dropped, and a new one taken up the next
term.
io WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
It was almost impossible not to learn arithmetic thor-
'oughly from her, as no rule was left until each member of
the class had mastered every example under it, and the
year's work was again reviewed at the close of school.
The public examinations were a great bugbear and were
conducted by Rutgers professors, but, as most of the sub-
jects had been committed to memory, there were seldom
any failures.
She cared little for dress, and the same clothes were
worn for years without any alterations, but she was never
untidy. She was a most conscientious teacher, made
much of Latin and Greek, and thought that life required
sterner stuff than the so-called accomplishments, of which
she possessed none herself.
Although her school was always well attended and her
tastes were simple, she died in the seventies, possessing
little money. She was a strict Presbyterian of the old
school.
Of all the schools in New York City, not one has pros-
pered for so many years under the same management as
that of Dr. and Mrs. Gardner. As I am writing of women
I cannot at present say anything of the genial, kind-
hearted doctor.
Mrs. Gardner was a pupil and a teacher at Mme. Emma
Willard's, and afterward taught at Mme. Chegaray's. In
her teaching and bearing one can see the influence of
both these great educators. Earnest and dignified, and
requiring faithful and intelligent study, yet laying almost
as much stress upon outward appearance as Mme. Che-
garay herself, she takes a personal interest in her pupils'
recreations as well as in their studies. She does not al-
ways grant their requests, but they know that she will be
just to them, for she is kind and sympathetic. It is said
that she has never been known to lose her temper ; there-
TEACHING. n
fore all respect her, and some of the finest women in our
country have been her pupils.
Her favourite branch of study is geometry, and no girl
ever graduates from her school who does not thoroughly
understand that science as far as she has gone into it.
Her " Histories in Rhyme," too, are a great aid to this
study. The examinations are always written, and she
keeps her school up with the times.
She is a member of Doctor Parkhurst's church and is
also his friend and admirer.
These great teachers, then, owe their success to their
tact, their gracious manner ; to the requiring of thorough-
ness in study, not making class distinctions ; to an indi-
vidual interest in their pupils, and to serene tempers,
impartiality, carefulness in their own dress and requiring
the same from their pulpils ; to stamping their personality
upon those whom they teach, and to keeping up to, and
if possible ahead of, the times.
LOUISE FISCHER,
New Brunswick, N. J.
QUALITIES OF THE TEACHER.
The Requisites for Success and the Cost of Preparation. — How
Women May Fit Themselves to Teach, and the Duties
and Rewards of the Profession.
"WHAT is requisite?" Character first, for she who is
to mould character must possess it. This embodies such
qualities as integrity, accuracy, punctuality, self-control,
cheer, courage, patience and dozens of the minor lights
which illuminate the personality and make a magnet of
the teacher.
Education comes next ; but not all, nor nearly all, of it
12 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
is to be gained from books or at school. Some of it must
be so acquired, but this must be added to, supplemented
and enriched by observation, experience and contact with
life — places, people and things. A high-school and
normal-school training will put into systematic order that
which has been already gained, will broaden the horizon
and help to " level up " to a high ideal. The more time
that can be given to study the better, but no one need
despair of doing good work as a teacher even if college
and university degrees are unknown.
Health is the next important factor for success as a
teacher, and this must be built up ; petted and caressed
if weak, and looked after in points of air — breathing and
ventilation — dress, diet, bathing, exercise, rest and recrea-
tion. Each of these needs attention, and in detail.
Headaches, backaches, dyspepsia, etc., should be un-
known to the teacher who must meet and face problems
of intellect, morals and physical progress, taking the
mother's place in a measure, and often that of doctor,
pastor and friend, as well as teacher.
Teaching makes a great drain on vitality, and teachers
need good food in large quantities, easy dress and plenty
of out-of-door air, with at least eight hours of sleep on a
good bed in a dark, quiet, well-ventilated room.
Common-sense is an absolute requirement in the dis-
position of a successful teacher, and after she has learned
all the principles of psychology and pedagogy— if that
were possible — if she has not common sense to apply and
adapt them she will find herself on the minus side of the
sign. Learn to think for yourself, and to use common
sense in all your work. This includes tact, courtesy and
patience.
The cost of preparation depends upon where that pre-
paration is made. In New York City there is a Normal
TEACHING. 13
Training College for Girls, presided over by Dr. Thomas
Hunter and free to the public, or at least to such as can
pass the entrance examination. For the girl who has a
home in New York where she will not have to pay board,
and if carfare is not a necessary "expense, the cost will
depend upon the amount she must spend for clothing and
incidentals. Good board, with rooms, can be had as low
as $5 a week, for those who have no home here, and the
course will occupy three or four years, dependent upon
the girl's ability.
New York State has a dozen or so State normal col-
leges. They are situated at Oswego, Albany, Brockport,
Potsdam, Fredonia, Geneseo, Cortland, Oneonta, New
Paltz, Jamaica, etc., where the tuition, text-books, etc.,
are free and the living expenses low. Certificates from
any of these pass current as testimony of ability in most
places, although some superintendents will not endorse
them. Most of the other States have similar institutions,
supplemented by teachers' training classes in academy,
high school and union school.
The county institutes and county normal schools, held
from one to six weeks annually in most States, also help
the struggler after " more light," or at least that is their
mission. If a teacher wants to climb, the ways and means
are many, the open doors numerous.
I think the great tendency of the city teachers to-day is
to do too much, rather than too little, in the way of self-
help along the lines of study ; but in the case of the
young and the inexperienced girl this is almost indispen-
sable. In her case I always advise : Go slowly. Study for
a term or a year ; then stop and put in practice what you
have learned, and sift the useful from the merely orna-
mental, selecting what you need, and then go back to
pick up the next year's study with added intelligence.
14 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
"Salary?" That depends. If you begin in a country
district in the summer you may have to take as low as $3
a week ; in the winter that same school will be likely to
pay about $7, possibly as high as $10. From this point
the salary ranges all the way up to $15 in the country and
higher in some cities, although the grade teacher who is
doing first-year work anywhere need not be alarmed over
any prospect of an immediate access of surplus wealth, as
the world reckons wealth. Promotion and price depend
more upon the individual than upon set conditions. I
have known a beginner to go into a primary department
and get $400 a year. Make yourself indispensable any-
where, and price will never be an objection.
Work in the private schools is usually easier and some-
times better paid.
There are few situations where greater helplessness is
felt, where one is more at sea without compass, sail, mast
or rudder, than that which confronts the 'young graduate
who for the first time finds herself face to face with from
thirty to sixty active typical young Americans. Hereto-
fore she has had behind her the critic teacher, while before
her were the well-bred children of the " model " school in
which she has had her meagre training — our own City Nor-
mal College gave weeks of this work during the last year of
the course. One's beautiful theories of pedagogy scatter
like dust before the wind in the face of this little king-
dom of restless, keen-eyed, loving or disobedient subjects,
as the case may be.
How, then, shall she go to work ? What is the first
thing to be done and how ? How are the first steps to be
taken which shall draw her nearer to the gilded palace of
success ?
First — I would say, practice the fine art of adaptation.
Fit your work and working manner to the conditions by
TEACHING. 15
which you find yourself surrounded, be these what they
may. Don't climb imaginary ladders in order to reach
up after stars to crumble for your class, when all that
they require to give light is a plain tallow-dip. Don't
be too highly scientific, in other words, for the common
understanding of the average child—for you will find your-
self dealing with "averages" much oftener than with
prodigies. The precocious are less in need of your help,
anyway, than is the common child. Use common sense
and avoid extremes.
Second (and to many this ought to have been first) —
Don't give too much thought to your personal dignity.
Most of us have a great natural capacity for trying to
"show off," and there's no keener-eyed detective in this
line than the average young American. Real dignity he
appreciates ; but you had better get rid of that which
has to be advertised in order to keep it in full blossom for
tl.e benefit of spectators. Cultivate sympathy, common
sense, patience with human nature, rather than waste too
much vitality on bolstering up a false dignity ; but always
dignify your dignified profession by your love for and
enthusiasm in it. Put your best into it, and make every-
thing else subordinate thereto, and you will not need to
plead for your dignity.
Third — Take counsel of experience. Don't for one mo-
ment think that because you have graduated, and even with
high honours, you are going to steer clear of trouble, even
though you have a guide book in your cabin locker that
tells you how to meet the ordinary events of your work.
You will find the first few years full of emergencies that
seldom come alone and never twice alike. These you
must meet at the moment. Judge for yourself rather
than depend too closely upon what some one else thinks
is bestfoi >ou undei special or given circumstances. Get
16 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
your general principles from everywhere and from every-
body, but learn to make the personal application yourself.
You know the individual needs of your class or school
after you have been in the work for a time better than
any one else can tell you them, if you have done faithful,
conscientious work — or else you have missed your calling
and would better change it.
Fourth — Avoid unpleasant criticism of your patrons,
your officials, your associates, your pupils, especially in
public. Fault-finding grows by what it feeds upon, and a
public rehearsal is rarely beneficial. Help to root out
error wherever you find it, even at the risk of losing your
official head.
Fifth — Learn all that is possible about your pupils, as to
heredity, environment, character and its causes, and then
train accordingly. Your full duty is not done when the
lessons of the day have been developed. You must put
each child in the way of making the most of himself and
of his opportunities. This covers a larger ground than
even the broadest curriculum, but is the minimum limita-
tion which you should allow yourself at the outset. And
you will often find yourself tempted to give too much
attention to the "black sheep" of your fold. Guard,
watch and feed them all carefully, wisely and lovingly —
but don't rob Peter to pay Paul.
And, finally, look out for yourself financially, socially,
spiritually, mentally, physically. If you find any part of
your nature suffering because of your work, change it, or
change something in the work that will bring you up to
your highest standard and help you to reach out to the
ideal which you have pictured. Less than this you have
no right to accept in justice to yourself and to all con-
cerned. Self-sacrifice is beautiful in the abstract ; but if
you are a really good teacher you are a real blessing to
TEACHING. 17
the entire world, and neither the general world nor your
corner of it can afford to let you immolate yourself upon
a fanatical altar of sacrifice.
Take as great care of your health as you do of that of
your pupils, and don't go into school jaded by overwork
— nor overplay, for there is such a thing — pressed down
by home cares and outside duties, nor give up all your
leisure to attending pedagogical meetings.
Get just as much real, genuine fun out of life as you
can, and while it is your duty to take, read and digest
professional literature, and to attend professional lectures
occasionally, I advise that you do not confine yourself to
these : but that you frequently seek cheer, courage and
information outside of them. Mix with the world socially
and in business, so that you do not dwarf and grow nar-
row in your outlook. Read people, places and events, and
profit as you read and experience, making all bring fish
to your net.
And, withal, be not discouraged at the magnitude of the
task before you, but of good cheer, remembering that it is
only by little and little that perfection in anything is
gained, and that, no matter what your discouragements
may be, some one else has had the same thing to contend
with, and that you can rise superior to them all and make
each a stepping-stone to something higher, greater, nobler.
LUCY A. YENDES.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
They Fill a Large Place in American Life.
WHATEVER one may think about the advantages of the
public school for the average American boy or girl, the
fact cannot be denied that there is a large place in our
i8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
social system for the strictly private school. In manag-
ing the education of girls in such institutions many
charming women find congenial and often profitable occu-
pation.
These schools give at least a comfortable maintenance
to their organizers, with a chance of something more.
It is true that few proprietors of girls' schools have retired
with fortunes, or with anything more than a modest com-
petence. It is also true that many who began with
nothing have ended their careers with no more than when
they began. Yet the cause of failure to save a goodly
sum from the earnings of a private school has almost
always been a lack of business judgment, which would
have led to the same result in any other occupation.
A woman who must undertake her own support begins
the conduct of a private school with the best chances of
success if she starts with a capital of wide personal
acquaintance, which may have been acquired in social life
or as an assistant in another school. Mothers who medi-
tate intrusting their children to the care of some other
woman, who must be to the young people during the
period of homesickness and in times of illness a second
mother to them as well as a teacher, need to know some-
thing about the qualifications of the head of the private
school. Personal acquaintance is better than public repu-
tation as a means of winning the confidence of parents,
especially in the early years of the school.
The most successful private school for girls are located
in or near the large cities. The cities themselves are
educational, with their museums, libraries, art galleries
and opportunities for enjoying the drama or opera. At
the same time, no location is complete unless it is thor-
oughly healthful, and unless there is a sufficient popula-
tion in the close vicinity to make it possible to obtain a
TEACHING. 19
good attendance of day scholars, who live at home but go
to the school every day for recitations.
With location well selected, with a good acquaintance
to begin with, proper advertising and suitable reference,
there is no reason why a sympathetic and intelligent
woman should not do well in the management of a girls'
school. And there is a field for the employment of sev-
eral other women in each of these schools as teachers and
housekeepers.
No such school can begin its existence without some
financial capital. This is not often difficult to obtain in
some of the suburbs of a large city. A first-class girls'
school adds to the attractions of the suburb for the better
class of residences, and is an excellent advertisement of
the suburb itself. In a number of well-known cases those
who have realty interests in a suburban village, with an
intelligent regard for their own interests, aided actively
in the establishment of a private school. In one way or
another, whether the ambitious woman locate her school in
the city itself or in a suburban town, she must obtain the
means to furnish one or more buildings with the proper
outfit, and if the enterprise succeeds she may expect to
pay all her borrowed money, and become sole proprietor
in the course of a few years. From that time on she may
expect to lay something by for the " rainy day," besides
winning distinction in the noble profession of educators.
MRS. J. C. HAZEN.
WOMEN AS SCHOOL OFFICERS.
IN the field of education woman finds her employment
mainly as teacher or the proprietor of a private school.
She is eligible, however, to a share in the management of
20 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
the public schools in several States ; and, while the total
number of offices open to women is comparatively small,
yet it is worth while to mention the facts.
In Colorado and Wyoming women are the State super-
intendents of schools.
There are twelve city superintendents of schools who
are women, and 228 women who are county superintend-
ents of schools in the United States.
Women may hold the office of county superintendent in
Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisi-
ana, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Penn-
sylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyom-
ing.
In all the States named, except Kentucky, Montana,
Tennessee and Wyoming, she can hold nearly every
school office there is.
In New York State women can be school district officers
and commissioners.
And, finally, women can be local town or district school
officers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio
and Vermont.
AUTHORSHIP.
FICTION A HOPEFUL FIELD.
Woman in Literature. — The Greatest Mistake Is to Write
about Things Outside One's Range of Personal Knowledge.
THE outlook for woman in literature is not very differ-
ent from her outlook in any other field or profession.
The woman who would succeed in authorship or editor-
ship must remember that literature, like art, is a jealous
mistress, and permits of few rivals. She must be willing
to consecrate her time, thought and strength to the work
she has in hand. Qualities of accuracy, promptness,
method and fidelity are as important here as elsewhere.
She needs, too, a certain business knack, so that she may
adapt her wares to her purchasers.
If journalism be the aim of the ambitious young girl just
leaving college, it is quite probable that she may have to
begin on the lowest round of the ladder and work her way
up, and while there is room at the top, the lower rounds are
apt to be very crowded. Therefore the young woman
who means to succeed will disdain no small assignment,
and will undertake willingly any obscure task which may
be given to her. While -the broad culture and mental
discipline which are her dower from her college will
enable her to do the best work wherever she may be
placed, she will soon discover that what we used to call
" the ordinary English branches " will stand her in good
stead in the daily task.
22 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
The successful woman author or journalist must know
how to spell, and must be so impressed with her duty to
her mother tongue that she will use it with correctness
and elegance. An intimate acquaintance with the masters
of literature will greatly assist her, partly in an enriched
vocabulary, partly in facility in writing, partly in grace of
style ; but when all else is said, writers are born and not
made. One finds the writing talent cropping up unex-
pectedly in some bright girl who has had comparatively
limited advantages, while it is entirely absent from one to
whom the schools have lavishly given all they had to
bestow ; and therefore, to begin with, one who aspires to
success must have, at least to a certain extent, this blessed
writing talent which the fairies have dropped into her
cradle at her birth.
These are days when everybody reads and almost every-
body else tries to furnish the reading. The special temp-
tation of the novice is to attempt that which is lofty and
far afield. A woman who knows all about dishcloths and
dusters sends verses to the magazines, and is dismayed at
finding them declined. The possibility is, had she written
about homely house-keeping and sent her work to a
homely house-keeping paper, it would have been received
and paid for.
Common sense is a requisite of success in all depart-
ments of life. It is very evident that one must have a
certain amount of this if she would make her mark any-
where. In accordance with this plain, every-day essential,
the literary aspirant will make herself depended upon. If
she undertakes to do a thing, she will do it. If she prom-
ises to be at a given place at a given hour, she will keep
her appointment. She will not neglect her health, for on
its maintenance hangs her ability to keep her word when
she has made an engagement.
AUTHORSHIP. 23
Perhaps the greatest danger in her case will be that she
will attempt too much. A woman simply cannot succeed
in literature or journalism and at the same time go freely
into society or devote all her evenings to amusement.
She will need her full modicum of sleep. She should have
good food, and plenty of it. She will find it wise to dress
with a view to going about comfortably and at her ease in
all weathers. Not losing a particle of her womanliness,
she will not stand upon it to the exaction of drawing-room
courtesies from busy men in business hours. In short,
her common sense will pervade everything that she does.
The woman who would succeed must also study care-
fully the public whom she addresses. It is not worth
while to send a thoughtful and philosophical essay to a
society paper, nor a child's jingle to a stately review.
Women sometimes make the mistake of trying to write on
a subject of which they know nothing. Thus, to a
woman who has made science of music her study during
many painstaking years there came one day a flighty tele-
gram from a young woman to this effect : " Please wire me
all you know about Norse music. I have to write an
article on it for such a paper by such a date." Manifestly
this was not the way to undertake such an exploit, and
there was a singular dulness of vision and lack of con-
science in the woman who could make such a request at
such a source.
The woman who would successfully fill her place in the
literary field must rise above mere mercenary considera-
tions. The need of money and the desire to earn it are
perfectly legitimate incentives, but no one who does the
best work ever does it for money merely. It is everlast-
ingly true that " man shall not live by bread alone."
MARGARET E. SANGSTER
24 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
THE SECRETS OF PENCRAFT.
Little Things Which Writers Really Ought to Know. —
Advice to Women Who Aspire to Sell Manuscript
to Busy Editors,
THREE things are essential to success in pencraft — to
have something to say ; to know how to say it ; most
important of all, to know how and where to market it after
it is said. Nature, education and environment have much
to do with the ability to succeed in the first two. The
vital third rests almost wholly with the intending penwo-
man. The best, the only way, to find out where and how
to sell manuscripts is to read current periodical literature,
not at haphazard, with languid lack of criticism, but
alertly, comprehendingly, looking all the while as to the
why and wherefore of everything that goes in.
Every publication worth considering has its own definite
aim and atmosphere. Aims and atmosphere, of course,
have points of contact. What you need to look out for is
not their likenesses, but their differences. Once upon a
time I submitted a story to a veteran publisher who has
found millions in the business. In returning it he said :
" I like your story immensely ; I should print it but for
a single line in it. You speak of the heroine as ' of the
county aristocracy/ My public would not bear that —
would not bear, in fact, any recognition of the fact that
there are such things as social class distinctions. If I
printed your story it would call down on me an avalanche
of angry letters, and maybe cost me some lifelong sub-
scribers."
The incident is trivial, but worth telling, as showing
how many things go toward determining acceptance or
rejection.
AUTHORSHIP. 25
Another benefit of thus reading with a purpose is the
training it may be made to afford in the use of words.
Never copy slavishly anybody's style — not Stevenson's,
not even Shakespeare's if that were possible — but when-
ever a happy collocation of words arrests attention make
mental note of it, even though the words may seem
unlikely to serve any immediate turn. Thus you secure
a vocabulary. Vocabularies are exceedingly handy things
to have when your pen must strike a racing gait.
A greater benefit derived from them is that you may
escape the thrall of the hackneyed-conventional. Unusual
words flung with malice aforethought at an inoffending
subject are in the worst possible taste, but to use usual
words unusually is among the master secrets of style. It
gives a touch of distinction to the simplest subject.
Yet another advantage to be gained by studying the
magazines and newspapers is an accurate comprehension
of the literary mode of the moment. Literature is like
love and war — eternal ; nevertheless it is subject to
fashions. If you doubt it, compare the books, the maga-
zine stories, even the news items of ten years back, with
those of to-day. A case in point is the dialect story,
more particularly negro dialect. The epoch of " Mars
Chan," "Meh Leddy," "The Grandissimes," etc., has
seen its apogee. Nowadays even Mr. Page and Mr.
Cable have taken to other manners of writing. While a
story with a good deal of story in it — the only kind, to my
mind, in the least worth writing — has always a certain
vitality, it is more than a question whether even such
tales as Saxe Holm's, if they came out to-day, the same
in line and letter, would get more than casual attention.
The actual work of making manuscripts needs but a
paragraph to describe it ; that is, as to its material side.
One point worth consideration is always to use good
26 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
paper, and plenty of it. That is to say, do not cramp
your sentences nor place your lines too close.
Typewriting requires the double space. Well done, it
adds to a manuscript's chances ; ill done, it had better
not be done at all. For a crabbed or illegible long hand,
the reader may make the excuse that it was the writer's
best. With a machine, poor copy has but one single
reason for its existence — slovenly carelessness. Teach
yourself to think at the machine — it is ridiculously easy.
Teach yourself also to be a good typewriter — you can
soon make perfect copy, easily and rapidly, if only you
will set yourself sedulously in the way of doing it.
But typewriting is not essential. Personally I would
rather read legible penwriting than the clearest type.
No matter how you write, do not send off scratched or
blotted or blotched sheets. If you spoil a sentence, a
paragraph, hopelessly, take a fair new sheet.
For mailing use small sheets ; about four inches by
eight are best. Send them flat. Crease the ordinary
typewriter paper once, crosswise the middle. For both
use big envelopes, preferably smooth manilla ones, which
are strong, neat-looking and cheap.
Whether or not you shall send with your manuscript a
letter to the editor is one of those matters of taste about
which it is idle to dispute. But regarding letters of intro-
duction, friendly criticisms from eminent authorities, and
so on, they are worth to the young writer exactly the
paper they are printed on. This is a frozen fact— every
manuscript sent to a .reputable editor gets some sort of
examination. If it carries its own letter on its face, it is
likely to be read through — often more than once.
Then there is but one thing to be considered — whether
or not it suits the needs of that particular publication.
If it does, the editor jumps at it. If it does not, he sends
AUTHORSHIP. 27
it back, even though his most familiar friend had com-
mended it to him. In fact, judging solely by the intrica-
cies of our human nature, the letter of introduction may
possibly work harm. The most of us resent an attempt
to make up our minds for us, and richly enjoy having our
own sweet way and will.
Whether it is better to carry manuscript or send it,
always depends. Sometimes two minutes of talk go a
long way in your favour. Two hours of talk will kill the
chances of a Kipling. Remember, the editor has other
business than seeing you, even though you may be among
the most charming works of nature — and art. Commonly
he is paid a salary (commonly also he bears a conscience)
and wishes to earn it. If you can trust yourself to be
brief, business-like, yet thoroughly womanly, you may
beard the lions editorial— rusually most gentle lions — in
their dens, to the betterment of your chances. But if
you have a hobby, a grievance or a mission, in pity for-
bear !
Never, never, never — I should like to write with the
emphasis of double leads — try to make capital of any dis-
advantage you may suffer. Neither your poverty nor
losses nor your womanhood can be laid at the reading
public's door, hence the editor, the reading public's mid-
dleman, has no sort of concern with them.
Another thing, one that applies most to working
journalists, never permit yourself to forget that what is
unbecoming a gentlewoman is doubly unbecoming a
newspaper woman. That is to say, never let yourself do
anything simply because a woman's doing it would make
the world stare.
Dr. Johnson said of a woman's book that it was like a
dog's walking on two legs — the wonder was not that it
was ill done, but that it was done at all. The moral is,
28 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
take any assignment that you can fill acceptably, regard-
less of sex, but take none that might be given you simply
because there would be a sensational fillip in seeing how
a woman would discharge it.
The best English, and plenty of it, is hardly good
enough for real newspaper work. Try always to say
what you have to say freshly, picturesquely, in the fewest
possible words, with the strictest possible regard for
accuracy. Never " fake " anything. If you cannot find a
story, have the courage to say so. If you find a nasty
story, have the supreme courage to leave it untold. Let
it be understood that you are dependable, accurate and
given to noting the small things which give verisimilitude.
If Fate is unkind and sends you interviewing, pray for
double stocks of tact and discretion. It is often unsafe
to put into people's mouths the things they say, and ex-
tremely safe to put there the things they would like to
have said, only they did not know them to say.
MARTHA McCuLLOCH WILLIAMS.
GOOD WITS, PEN AND PAPER.
Mary E. Wilkins on the Essentials for Authorship. — Excel-
lent Matter Will Not Be Rejected Successfully by Every
Editor. — Originality.
OF course, it is understood that no girl can become a
successful writer of short stories or books unless she has
a certain amount of natural ability in that direction.
Otherwise all the advice in the world must be of no avail.
There must be a spark, however small, of genuine talent
in order to have a flame.
AUTHORSHIP. 29
When this talent does exist the simplest road to success
is the best. There is really little to do except to provide
one's self with good pens, good ink and paper, a liberal
supply of postage stamps and a more liberal supply of
patience, sharpen one's eyes and ears to see and hear
everything in the whole creation lijtely to be of the
slightest assistance, and set to work. Then, never cease
work for the pure sake of the work, and never write solely
for the dollars and fame, while one lives.
A young writer should follow the safe course of writing
only about those subjects which she knows thoroughly,
and concerning which she trusts her own convictions.
Above all, she should write in her own way, with no
dependence upon the work of another for aid or sugges-
tion. She should make her own patterns and found her
own school.
When it comes to placing stories, books, etc., there is
nothing to do but to send them to editors and publishers,
with the firm belief that no article really worthy of accept-
ance will be rejected by them all. Such a result is very
unlikely, and it is generally safe to conclude that there is
some defect, if not of art, of adaptability, in the article.
The influence of others in placing work is very much
overrated. I doubt if many successful authors can attrib-
ute their success to anything but their own unaided
efforts, and if many can trace the acceptance of first
articles to words or letters of recommendation to editors
from influential friends.
The keynote of the whole is, as in every undertaking in
this world, faithful, hopeful and independent work.
MARY E. WILKINS.
30 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
JOURNALISM HAS CHARMS.
Mrs. Alden Writes on News-Getting and News-Handling. —
Probable Earnings, Qualifications for the Work, and
Methods Which Lead to Success and Advancement.
JOURNALISM proper, as a field for the activities of wo-
men, offers many rewards objective and subjective. At
the beginning, let me explain what I mean by journalism
proper. It is not the mere writing of pieces for the
weekly, monthly or daily newspaper, or the mere drawing
of a salary in a position held by strictly extrinsic pull or
influence. It is the conscientious, continuous earning of a
living, as reporter or editor, in the collection or handling of
daily news. The objective rewards, summarized, mean
an honest, reasonably liberal maintenance. The sub-
jective rewards, summarized, mean a perpetual broaden-
ing of the intellectual and spiritual horizon of the worker.
Twenty-five years ago woman was hardly known in
daily journalism. Mrs. Sarah J. Lippincott (Grace
Greenwood) had contributed political and sociological
essays to several newspapers ; so had Mrs. J. C. Croly
(Jennie June). James G. Elaine's sister-in-law, Mi^s
Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), was also a valued though
desultory contributor. Earlier than this, Victoria C.
Woodhull had offered to The Herald her series of
articles on " The Tendencies of Government," and these
were printed in the spring and summer of 1870, but were
hardly treated seriously by the elder Mr. Bennett.
One of the first women to make a name for herself as a
regular salaried employe of a New York newspaper, in a
news-getting capacity, was Miss Midy Morgan, the live-
stock reporter of The Times. She came from a good
Irish family, was thoroughly educated, had travelled all
AUTHORSHIP. 31
over the world, and was one of the best judges of horse-
flesh in the United States. To some of her closest
friends she used to show a gold medal presented to her
by Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, who had commis-
sioned her to buy a hundred horses for the royal stables,
and had thought her good judgment and economy
worthy of special recognition. Miss Morgan's work for
The Times suited her, but would not have been con-
genial to most women, as it involved a daily visit to the
great stockyards in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.
No man could have been more conscientious about
doing this work well and equally well in all sorts of
weather. She was also a contributor to The Tribune.
Miss Nellie Hutchinson was for many years in charge
of a " Personal and Humourous " column on the editorial
page of The Tribune, which was perhaps more widely
quoted than any column of its sort in the United States.
She was also one of the most trusted literary and dra-
matic critics in America. Miss Hutchinson (now Mrs.
Cortissoz) is yet a member of The Tribune editorial
force.
In later years, largely because of the success of a few
womanly and able attaches of large newspapers, women
have entered the journalistic field in increasing numbers.
Their presence there has lost its novelty, and no longer
calls for comment.
Salaries differ with different localities, the character of
the newspaper concerned, and the personality of the
individual worker, because personality is everything in
the getting of news and the writing of criticisms. Sala-
ries range from $15 a week to $80. There may be one
or two women in legitimate journalism who are making
more than the latter figure. Until experience has done
its perfect work no young woman can expect to earn
32 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
more than the average salary of a reporter, say $15 or $25
a week. This is, in New York City, only a little less than
men are receiving for the same work. In some Western
cities, I understand, the rates are slightly higher. 1
know of one woman in Denver, Col., who receives $30 a
week for reporting.
The presentation of facts as to what women are doing
in their various organizations, church, charitable and
literary, in which The Tribune has led the way, is
rapidly becoming an essential feature of American jour-
nalism, and in this field women have the advantage.
They can reach the sources of news more easily than
men, and are, indeed, less likely to be hoodwinked by
those who seek personal advertisement, who are often at
the front, even in worthy organizations. In other words,
it takes a woman to catch a woman, and the newspapers
are realising that fact more and more every day,
Literary and art criticism, so essential to any great
modern newspaper, is open to women equally with men.
The beginner may always hope to succeed if she can
develop sufficient culture, acuteness and skill in writing.
As for advancement in her calling, therefore, the reporter
need not feel that she is hopeless ; but if she will take my
advice, she will temper her ambition with a conscious-
ness that a newspaper demands no work that is higher or
more dignified than the collection of news. It is certain
that all the human sympathy, all the dramatic sense, and
all the logic of the brightest- graduate of Wellesley,
Smith or Vassar will be required to grasp the 'essence of
a news story, perceive the facts properly, and express the
whole in English as pure and understandable as that of
the King James version of the New Testament.
Let me warn the aspirant against philosophy and fine
writing. No matter how clever a woman may be, there is
AUTHORSHIP. 33
little chance that she will be able to rival Locke, or
Bacon, or La Rochefoucauld, or Montaigne, or Benjamin
Franklin, at first. If she tries to deal with generalities
and write glittering introductions, her copy will be cut to
pieces unmercifully, because her remarks are likely to be
either all wrong or all stale. The living, breathing world
is intolerant of upstarts and imitators. The living,
breathing story of what has happened is demanded from
her pen. That is the news. That is the new thing. As
for style, the shortest words, the shortest sentences, the
clearest forms of expression are the best. Addison is
obsolete, and Kipling is the best model, if a model the
woman journalist must have. Frankly speaking, I would
prefer to try a girl who has no model ; she is far more
likely to render her writing intelligible within a brief
period of training.
The country girl should not come to New York with
the intention of making a living in journalism, without
enough money to make her safe from privation for six
months. As for other qualifications, I shall try to
enumerate them as briefly as possible :
First — A good common-school education. If the
aspirant has broader culture than such an education
implies, so much the better. She cannot possibly know
too much. But English grammar and spelling are indis-
pensable acquirements if tolerable manuscript is to be
produced.
Second — A legible hand. li a woman can use a type-
writing machine, there will be many occasions when she
can make her manuscript better by so doing ; but often
the use of such a machine will be absolutely impracti-
cable.
Third — The manners of a woman of good society. I
do not refer to Society with a big " S." That is another
34 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
thing. The manners of the best people in Oshkosh, or
Spring Valley, or Cripple Creek are good enough. But
coarseness is unpardonable in a woman who is going out
every day to talk with womanly women in the necessary
collection of news.
Equipped with these qualifications, freed from nervous-
ness by the fact that she is temporarily provided for, the
young woman will find it worth her while to study news-
papers before she goes into a newspaper office. She
should learn what sorts of matter are printed every morn-
ing and ask herself whether, in the same fields, there is
not some unprinted story that she knows or can find out
about. If there is, let her write it up. With this article
she may go to any office, and ask for the city editor or
the editor of the woman's department. She will equally
avoid coquettishness and constraint. She will say : " I
am Miss Brown, of Stamford. I have come to New York
to learn to be a reporter. I want a chance to learn.
Please look over this story and see if it is worth using,
and give me an assignment to try me. I am ready to do
any work you can put me to."
The editor will say " Yes " or " No." If he says " No,"
she must try another office in the same way. She must
not feel personally hurt or aggrieved if work is not im-
mediately forthcoming. It is not Miss Brown, of Stam-
ford, who has been rejectedc It is an inexperienced ap-
plicant for work. If she persists in her study of news-
papers and her attempts at news stories, she will succeed
sooner or later in getting a trial. What then ?
She must put her work ahead of all social engagements.
She must be always on hand. The bird which is watch-
ing when the worm crawls out into the sunlight is the
bird that gets fed. If getting a story makes work after
midnight necessary, she must work after midnight without
AUTHORSHIP. 35
murmuring. She must dispense with the idea that it is
dignified to do one thing and undignified to do another.
All are parts of the same whole. She must not give to
her meals precedence over her work ; yet she must eat
with reasonable regularity, if she would preserve her
health, and without health good work is impossible. She
must dress for all weathers. She must always remember
that it is her paper and not herself that is snubbed when
any one refuses her news. She must feel herself just one
finger of a giant — the press of America. She must get
rid of the theory that a woman may not safely go into the
streets of a city without an escort after dark. If she be-
haves herself she is in no more danger than is her brother.
She must put truth above everything else, and avoid the
fallacy that imagination can be made to take the place of
industry.
If any young woman of ordinary sense will pay at-
tention to all these points, she can make a good living as
a reporter. She will find that the range of her under-
standing and her sympathies is being increased with every
month of her work. She will be studying, not Hawthorne,
or Hardy, or Howells, but the raw material of the novel-
ist. Her daily experience will be a continuous education
for the field of legitimate fiction. Humour and pathos will
be entering into her daily life in a way that would be
otherwise impossible. If she has talent or genius or
executive ability her future is secure. Meanwhile her
daily bread is provided for. What more could be asked
for any vocation in life ?
CYNTHIA WESTOVER ALDEN.
36 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
TO WOULD-BE AUTHORS.
Don't be Discouraged. — Editors Have No Grudge Against
the Writers.
THE girl who is easily discouraged stands a poor chance
of winning in any calling or profession, a-nd this is ex-
ceptionally true of literary work. Because a manuscript
is rejected by one publication it does not follow that it is
not exactly fitted to the needs of some other one. There-
fore, when a too bulky envelope makes its appearance in
your morning mail, instead of the thin but check-bearing
one you were hoping for, don't cast it into the fire, Miss
Literary, nor yet sit down and weep over the rejection.
If you must weep, keep up a brave heart withal, and post
your rejected story straightway to some other editor, and
then, without waiting to learn its fate, sit down to write
something better.
Another thing: It is only waste of time and postage
stamps to cast your manuscript upon the troubled waters
of literature without studying carefully the chart which
shows the character of its safe harbours. An excellent
and well-written story that is exactly appropriate for one
publication will be altogether out of place in certain
others. Find out by thorough inspection what particular
kind of story a magazine usually inclines to. If your
story is a simple love tale for the delectation of senti-
mental young women, don't send it to a magazine with a
penchant for ghost stories and grewsome tales of ad-
venture.
If it is an essay on the ethics of modern sociology, do
not submit it to the editor of a fashion sheet. Above all,
do not send poetry to any of the publications wherein
rhymes are tabooed. Study the character of each pub-
AUTHORSHIP. 37
lication before you favor it with the perusal of your man-
uscript, and thus spare yourself many a heartache.
Again, do not overload your manuscripts on other wo-
men who have achieved some degree of success. They
still have troubles of their own, and the most successful
woman cannot place worthless manuscript on the literary
market, if signed by an unknown name. Remember that
success depends upon you alone ; if there is merit in what
you write, and you have patience and perseverance, edi-
tors are going to find it out ; otherwise nobody can help
you.
Before I became an editor I believed with other as-
pirants that acceptance or rejection was too often a mat-
ter of influence or personal interest. Now I know that
an editor is frequently obliged to reject an excellent ar-
ticle for the best possible reasons. First, the article may
not be suited to his publication ; second, it may be ex-
actly in line with something he has already used or is just
going to publish ; third, it may be too long or too short ;
fourth, the magazine may be already overstocked with
manuscripts ; fifth, the editor may not be able to pay for
it ; sixth, and so on, up to sixtieth, there may be plenty
of reasons why his " with regrets " may be sincere.
Be not easily discouraged. Do not attempt to write
unless you have something to say, and then try to say it
in a convincing and, if possible, an out-of-the-usual way.
Keep up a brave spirit and welcome rejected manuscript
as the necessary discipline for moulding the successful
writer. Send it forth with a prayer and a song — not a
sigh. Practise patience and perseverance with a capital
P, and you will push up to the profitable paths of a pro-
lific pen.
HELEN M. WINSLOW.
38 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
PROFITS OF AUTHORSHIP.
FINANCIAL success in literature cannot safely be pre-
dicted. Some of the most clever writers have failed to
make a living. Many mediocrities have made fortunes.
So fickle is public favour that a novelist often makes a hit
with her first book and never afterward attracts much at-
tention. Many writers of fiction have other resources for
a livelihood or are in independent circumstances. Some
are editors of magazines, like Mary Mapes Dodge and
Margaret E. Sangster. Some do much newspaper work,
like Mrs. M. E. W. Sherwood, Marion Harland and Mrs.
Elaine Goodale-Eastman. A great number of women do,
nevertheless, find in fiction an income sufficient to encour-
age them to make its production a life work. Among
such known in this country and in England are Mrs.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Margaret Deland, Harriet
Prescott Spofford, Mrs. Van Rensselaer Cruger, Mrs.
Burton Harrison, Mrs. M. E. W. Sherwood, Amelie Rives,
Ruth McEnery Stuart, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Mary E.
Wilkins, Anna Katharine Green, Marietta Holly, Amelia
Barr, the late Maria Pool, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mary
J. Holmes, Mary Hallock Foote, Mrs. E. D. E. N. South-
worth, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Marie Corelli, Olive
Schreiner, Beatrice Harraden, Sara Jeanette Duncan and
Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes).
DRAMATIC ART.
SIXTY YEARS ON THE STAGE.
Mrs. W. G. Jones, an Actress Since Van Buren Was President.
— Reminiscences and Advice for Women Who
Hope to Succeed.
BECAUSE it is thought that my long career as an actress
has fitted me to give advice to the aspirant to histrionic
honours, I have been asked to give my opinion as to how
a young woman wishing to go on the stage should prepare
herself for it.
It is now sixty years since I played my first part, and I
have met and known — well, all the members of the profes-
sion who have been heard in this country in my day.
Two generations is a long time to look back, and yet I
can remember distinctly my childish feelings when, -at
eight years of age, I stepped upon the boards in the char-
acter of the child Rose in " The Gambler's Fate." That
is a play which, like many good ones, has not survived its
period of production.
' The beginner of to-day, with a confidence won during
her training at the dramatic school, and her general
knowledge of the world and of events gained by the
unavoidable meeting and clashing of many personalities
in the busy city of life, would feel that " The Gambler's
Fate " was an impossible piece, even to begin with. But
it is not so much that the standard of excellence in the
drama is raised now to a higher point, as that the standard
is different.
WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Thus in giving advice to young people of to-day I can
only say what seems to me to be the proper course to
take, but as this course is not one I have taken I cannot
vouch for its entire excellence.
In my youth schools of acting were unheard of, nor
were they necessary. Members of the present-day dra-
matic schools, and all the young recruits in the profession,
declare that candidates for the stage ought to study under
a definite curriculum, just as they would do for any other
profession, but I should like to tell what was done before
there were dramatic schools where instruction could be
had, and how the actors and actresses in those days pre-
pared themselves for their calling.
To begin with, formerly people did not take up the pro-
fession so generally as they do now. Those who adopted
it were, for the most part, born to it ; their parents or
relatives had been actors or theatrical people for genera-
tions before them. They were thus in a manner educated
from birth to the technicalities of the profession ; they
were from babyhood before the footlights ; they imbibed
the jargon of the stage, and they had no illusions
about it to overcome. A great deal of time was therefore
saved in teaching what the student at the dramatic school
must learn through precept rather than example and
experience in every-day life.
If, in addition to this kind of training, the girl had genu-
ine talent, was possessed of a good voice and a dramatic
manner, she would readily imitate the best she heard and
saw, and would come into especial notice at an early date.
Besides all this, the stock companies used to carry on
an even succession of plays, and keep their members em-
ployed the year round ; whereas now, unless a play has a
phenomenally long run, the company composing the cast
is disbanded when the play is taken off. So that an
DRAMATIC ART. 41
actress's " season " may be months or weeks, according
to the success of the play, but she is not employed on a
yearly salary unless she is a member of a stock company
which will go " on the road " when the city season is over.
True, salaries in a certain way are better than they
were in the old days. The rate by the week or season is
higher, but the expenses attached to the career are so
much greater that the gain is not commensurate.
My first appearance was at the old Walnut Street Thea-
tre in Philadelphia, where my father was for years engaged
in the orchestra, and where I knew all the members of
the company and did not feel strange or frightened.
Indeed, the old stock company people were always like a
great family, like brothers and sisters together, and re-
joiced with each other in weal or mourned with each other
in woe. It was the same everywhere
I was for twenty-five years the " leading lady " at the
Bowery Theatre, playing at both the Old Bowery and at
the New Bowery until it was burned, and spent many
happy times before the lights and behind the scenes in
both houses.
As to the first steps for a would-be actress to take, I
think that in these times she cannot do better, if she has
had no childish training, such as I have spoken of, than
to attend a dramatic school. Of course she will not do
even this much unless she has shown some decided taste
and aptness for acting. If she has had really good ama-
teur experience, she would do better to join at once a
good stock company, for nothing is so good as the actual
experience gained before the public, where even practis-
ing is done as professionally as the " business " in hand.
As to how a girl can get into a stock company, there
are various ways. She may know some one in the com-
pany who will introduce her to the manager ; she may
42 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
know an outsider who will perform that service for her,
or she may have to brace herself up to make the applica-
tion.
In that case it will be as in every other business. The
manager will politely tell her if he does not need her ser-
vices, or he will give her a trial, according as she seems
to suit for whatever vacancy he has. She is certain not
to get a prominent part, but, however small a part is
assigned to her, she will, if accepted for it, begin to earn
something at once — not much, but a little.
Thus, she will be gaining an enormous amount of ex-
perience, not only in the business of her own part, but in
observing how others treat theirs, and in acquiring a
wider knowledge of human nature, with a toleration for
differing characteristics in different people.
Salaries are not set. Each manager has his own rules,
and the engagement is made for long or short periods,
according to the company's whim.
Some of the companies furnish the costumes for all
plays except modern ones. This is, of course, an immense
saving and also relief to the actress. Naturally salaries
are then lower. The modern, up-to-date gowns may be
of use off the stage, and are not, therefore, a total loss
to a girl if she does have to buy them. Many a girl makes
her own clothes, especially while she is playing minor
parts. It is possible to be well dressed on a small allow-
ance, if one does not go in for the numerous small extrava-
gances.
All young people are rather inclined to extravagances,
to those small vanities which eat up the quarters, and so
the dollars, and in our profession this is often marked. It
is necessary to dress well, to eat well, and to have a thor-
oughly comfortable and wholesome place to sleep in, but
it is not necessary to ride everywhere in cabs, to dine at
DRAMATIC ART. 43
the most expensive restaurants or to have apartments in
the dearest hotel in town.
If actresses will do as other business women do, take
good care of their health and indulge in no dissipation,
such as late suppers and extra exertion after their regular
work, they will not break down upder any amount of
hard playing. Then, if they will demand no more in the
way of luxury than they have been used to before they
began to play, they will be able to save something from
even a modest salary.
To advance to pinnacles of fame requires genius. In-
deed, I think even moderate success requires a consider-
able amount of magnetism, and this is not so difficult to
gain or to impart if there is real sympathy in the heart of
the actress for human nature generally, and for the kind
of nature she is portraying.
To gain this sympathy does not require scholarship.
Some of the best scholars make the poorest actors because
they are cold, while a girl who knows little outside of her
role may be able to win her audience to complete sym-
pathy with her. When, however, this ability goes with
culture and with knowledge, the actress who has acquired
them all will possess the secret of complete success.
Having won success, she must be sure to hold it, for,
should popularity once begin to decrease, it is difficult to
again revive it. To keep it, then, it must have been pro-
duced by real merit, and this merit need not be based
upon excess of genius, but it must be based upon truth.
However small the part, it must be played so truly as to
carry conviction of the actress feeling herself to be ex-
actly what she appears for the moment. I hold that
truth and sympathy can accomplish nearly everything.
MRS. W. G. JONES.
44 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
THESPIS IS A HARD MASTER.
Training of an Actress. — Physical Culture First — Then Voice,
Elocution, Grace in Action and Bearing.
TRULY of all arts the dramatic is the least understood.
It is remarkable how many young people conceive the
idea of going upon the stage, with apparently no concep-
tion of the fact that acting is a great art, which must be
learned like any other art. With a little dramatic talent,
they think, " Only give me a chance to get on the stage
and I will show you what I can do," not realising that
those who have reached a height in their profession have
done so only through years of training, study, struggle
and hard work.
To realise how great is this particular art, one has only
to think how many so-called actors and actresses are
scattered over the world and how few among them have
reached distinction. One cannot name twenty-five real
artists alive to-day without hesitating some time to con-
sider who they may be, and those who are famous through-
out the English-speaking world can easily be summed up
upon the fingers of one hand.
When our oldest actors learned their art every theatre
had its own stock company ; stars travelled alone, and
were supported by these companies, and plays seldom, if
ever, ran consecutively longer than a week, and often
were changed nightly. This afforded the dramatic aspi-
rant the most excellent training-school he or she could
have : but in the present day of travelling organizations
and plays of long runs the novice has little opportunity of
learning his art. Consequently the dramatic school has
become a necessity.
But too many young people do not consider the dra-
DRAMATIC ART. 45
matic school seriously ; they do not see in it an educational
institution to prepare them for their profession, but merely
an open doorway to place them upon the stage.
Almost the first question asked is : " Do you guarantee
a position at the end of the course ? " not " What is your
system of training, and after a thorough course of study
what do you think will be my chance of success ? "
Does the young man entering the medical or law school
ask : " Do you guarantee me a practice when I finish my
course ? " Assuredly not. He knows he must learn his
profession before he can practise it. So, too, with the
different arts ; the painter, the sculptor, the singer, the
musician, and even the writer, no matter how great the
talent, must all learn the technique of their art before
they become artists.
They enter the institutions teaching their particular
arts to study, and not for a supposed position they will
furnish them at the end of the term.
Art in acting will not grow until people thoroughly
comprehend that it is an art, and that in choosing the
stage as a profession their highest aim should be to
thoroughly fit themselves by hard work and study for
their chosen career ; under these conditions the rest will
follow.
Nb dramatic school in the country can honestly prom-
ise an engagement to a single individual at the end of a
prescribed course ; it can only lend its influence to place
the student in touch with the manager, and upon the
favour of the manager and the ability of the student the
engagement depends.
Managers are always on the lookout for the best talent,
and the best talent is dependent upon a thorough tech-
nique. As Hamilton Wright Mabie truly tells us, " Behind
every bit of genuine art there lies a training always
46 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
arduous, sometimes vigourous to the point of pain," and
also, in the words of Alfred de Musset, " It takes a great
deal of life to make a little art."
The question is often asked, " How long does it take to
prepare one's self for the stage ?" It is a difficult one to
answer; the length of time depends much upon the
individuality, temperament, power of application and
special talent of the pupil.
I should say that the very least time which should be
considered even by the most capable is six months of
daily study and instruction to furnish the student with
the mere rudimentary technical skill, and we would
advise not less than two years, where time and means will
permit, to give a sufficiently finished technique to do
justice to important parts.
Many young people have little idea, too, of the cost of
dramatic training. A regular course, covering a period
of six months, in a reliable New York school can scarcely
be undertaken, including board and ordinary personal
expenses, for much less than $600.
Many, too, come from a distance with the idea of
obtaining some light employment, partially to pay ex-
penses. This is a grave mistake, as the training in the
dramatic work is sufficiently exacting to employ all the
time of the student, both in school and out. The hours
in school are devoted to receiving instruction, and the
outside hours to practise, study and the memorizing of
lines.
The course of dramatic training is not infrequently a
revelation to the frivolous-minded, and these sometimes
sink by the wayside, never to be heard of again.
A little observation shows how few persons possess
physical poise. The greater number collapse at the cen-
tre when they sit down. That men do so is apparent
DRAMATIC ART. 47
from the wrinkles in their vests between the line of the
chest and the bottom of the garment. Men and women
walk without vitality in their bodies ; there is no balance
at the centre of the torso or easy vital action from the
hips.
A correct adjustment of the muscles means all manner
of bodily grace, and, we may confidently add, perpetual
youth. Through the development of the physical side of
the nature the mentality becomes keener and more ready
to receive outward impressions. Mind and physique are
closely allied, and the training of the body to a perfect
poise, with a high chest, easy shoulders and well-carried
head, elastic footstep and expansive movements, cannot
fail to arouse the inner being to nobler impulses and
higher aspirations. Many persons who travel through
the world with stiff, ungainly bodies and awkward move-
ments might be just as easy and graceful as some envied
friend or acquaintance if they only knew that grace is an
art which may be learned.
With these physical accomplishments there is next the
development and cultivation of the voice. As ungraceful
movements result from misuse of the muscles, so defects
in the voice are usually caused by bad habits of utterance.
With the exception of the few persons who are afflicted
with some radical malformation of the vocal organs, all
voices can be trained in speech as well as in music to
utter pure tone.
Nasal and other impure tones are generally acquired by
unconscious imitation, and the fault can be eradicated by
judicious culture. What can be more desirable in man or
woman than a resonant, mellow voice and beautiful,
cultured speech ? And both voice and speech may be
made beautiful and attractive. Surely, such a result is
worth all the pains that may be required to produce it,
48 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
since charm of voice is one of the most important factors
in creating and maintaining influence over mankind !
Besides the training in these two most important
departments, one finds in the dramatic school an artis-
tic atmosphere in the study of the best literature,
which cultivates the artistic spirit. The student dis-
covers new interests and beauties in nature ; the mind
broadens and expands to higher ideals, and literature is
read with a keener enjoyment and truer understanding.
Many persons afflicted with bashfulness and diffidence
of manner find in the constant class association in a com-
mon pursuit, in the daily recitations and rehearsals of
parts in a play, an invaluable practice in overcoming
these annoying and oftentimes detrimental qualities,
establishing in their place a self-possession and dignity of
manner which no other form of training can so thoroughly
give.
The world over, those persons succeed best who are
physically and mentally controlled — possessed of good
voices, with ability to express themselves in a cultured
manner. They are self-poised and able to understand
themselves, consequently are better able to understand
others. And herein lies one of the secrets of success in
the whole professional, commercial and social world.
We are fast beginning to learn that many defects which
we have long considered natural to our own particular
individuality are a mere matter of habit, developed
through ignorance, lack of care and environment, and
that in these days of physical and mental culture by the
assiduous development of the desirable qualities, one may
become pretty much the individual he or she most longs
to be.
Of late years the dramatic school has been the finishing
school where many a crude youth and maiden, and some
DRAMATIC ART. 49
a few years beyond "that stage, have by careful study de-
veloped into graceful, polished men and women.
ELEANOR GEORGEN
EARNINGS ON THE STAGE.
An Engagement the First Object. — Salary Comes Next in
Order of Time.
THE young woman who comes to a large city to go on
the stage must bring with her a large stock of patience
and perseverance, and money enough to live on for
several months at least.
It is presumed that she brings youth, some beauty —
the more the better — and talent, of course.
The best thing she can do to start with is to make
friends in the profession. If she has letters of introduc-
tion she will find them useful. The novitiate should live
in a professional atmosphere then, from the start, where
opportunities occur to meet managers naturally.
The first and great effort is to get onto the real stage
in whatever capacity, with a salary or without it ; and
this is effected either through a dramatic agency or by
meeting the manager of a theatre and impressing him
with the idea that the applicant is possible material for
future prominence or greatness.
As a rule, the first engagement will bring the beginner
out as one of a " populace," or miscellaneous group of
people. The weekly salary will be from $5 to $6, if any-
thing at all is paid. Costumes will be supplied by the
management.
Once on the boards, the aspirant needs merely to bide
her time, meanwhile studying with the diligence and
50 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ardour which are the surest guarantees of success, and
waiting for the opportunity to drop into some one's place.
Vacancies are liable to occur at any time, and every
actress has her " understudy."
A " speaking part " wins a salary of $15 to $35 a week,
and even more. In no other profession is one's market
value more accurately gauged or more generously re-
warded.
To sum up, it is necessary that the woman who aspires
to a dramatic career must have beauty, or the ability to
look beautiful, and a graceful carriage. Patience, plenty
of it — it will all be needed — a capacity for hard work, and
money enough to bridge over the period of weary wait-
ing, these are also essential. To succeed in a marked
degree after being launched, that is another matter.
Talent alone determines that.
While the majority, both of men and women, who seek
congenial employment upon the stage must be content
with the receipt of such salaries as their abilities will
bring them, it may not be amiss to recite the fact that, to
those who have some touch of genius, the stage offers
rewards quite as promising, financially, as any ether form
of business.
Merely to recite a few of the notable public examples
among men, reference may be made to Edwin Booth, who
retired from the stage worth a full $1,000,000. Joseph
Jefferson will be found to be a rich man. William H. Crane,
William Gillette, John Drew, Denman Thompson and
other well-known figures in theatrical life have gained
competence, and a few of them independence, by their
gracious services in the drama. What has been done by
a few can be done by others, both men and women, with
equal abilities and determination.
Among the women who have made fortunes on the
DRAMATIC ART. 51
stage, Lotta, Mrs. Barney Williams, Mrs. Ronderbush
(Agnes Ethel), Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry and our
own Mary Anderson are conspicuous. Emma Abbott
left a large estate.
MRS. A. M. PALMER
PROFESSIONAL READING.
College Graduates Should Not Neglect This Occupation.
" IN seeking an outlet for individuality, with bread-
winning intent, let not the girl rich in youth and the
wisdom of schools fail to consider well that much misun-
derstood, much-abused profession comprehensively cov-
ered by the term reader," says Mrs. Sarah Cowell Le
Moyne.
" It may not pay in dollars and cents for the eternal
vigilance which perfection in the art exacts, but, unlike
most professions that bring a woman before the public in
the role of entertainer, it does not wither with age. All
else being equal, the public does not demand eternal
youth in a reader. I expect to ' read ' when I am ninety,
and expect the public to say, * How well the old lady does
it ' ! "
" Knowledge of general literature, appreciation of
poetry, voice and personal appearance, are the essential
working material. With this as a foundation, let her study
pronunciation, articulation, breathing and control of the
body, until there is no right, no left, but a perfect whole,
and all gesture is unconscious. The public has no patience
with the reader who does not speak pure English.
" One of the great defects in American education is the
utter indifference as to how children speak, little atten-
tion being paid to their bodies, the uses of their lungs or
their walk.
52 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
" The college girl who comes to a large city with the
intention of becoming a public reader has, of course, in
her college training, studied pronunciation and articula-
tion, and has, I assume, paid some attention to physical
culture. She has probably found out what she thinks she
can do best. She wants now a public trial. Friends
flatter, or they do not know. The public, that pays its
money, tells the truth. Critics come to the public read-
ing, and in all probability the young reader will not have
a leg to stand on the next morning, when she reads the
criticisms of her work. It is a hard dose to swallow, but
if she is made of the right material she will be open to
criticism and ready to accept gratefully that which is just
and well meant.
" Having gained the verdict of an impartial public, let
her then put herself under the training of the best master
or mistress ; the best is always the cheapest. In time she
may give a second public reading. The criticisms may be
less severe, but still there is much to be mastered. If she
is wise she will profit by every criticism made, and study
and observe until her art is so simple, so natural, that it
is a return to nature.
" The drawing-room has opened up in late years a new
field for the professional reader. Engagements are usually
secured through social patronage, in the guise of sub-
scription classes."
MISS IDA BENFEY.
" The American Story-Teller" — Dramatic Readings from
Prominent Authors and from the Book of Job.
WHEN a woman voluntarily turns from an environment
where she is an acknowledged mistress of her art to seek,
DRAMATIC ART. 53
unheralded and unknown, higher development in the com
petition inseparable from a great metropolis, it is safe to
assert that the woman and her art are of uncommon order.
It is the story of Miss Ida Benfey, " the American story-
teller." Before she had quit her teens her natural gifts
were recognised by every institution of learning in San
Jose, whither she was taken in early childhood from her
native Michigan. Miss Benfey is college bred. Her
struggle to secure a degree at the University of California,
while she supported at the same time not only herself
but dependents, is an epic to stimulate and sustain the
faint-hearted. Wiseacres shook their heads the day this
plucky girl turned from assured livelihood in the West
to try her fortune in an undiscovered country. But hers
was the aspiration of the true artist. She must test her
metal in the hottest forge. To this end she came to
New York about ten years ago.
" The public need not know," said one of her masters,
Dion Boucicault, "that you brought into my school a
ready-made artist, and we could add little to your sum of
sweet qualities." By untiring study and faithful adhe-
rence to high ideals Miss Benfey has built solidly.
To the humblest effort she brings the breadth and
depth of wide observation and ripened scholarship. So
simple, so genuine, is her art that it is a return to nature.
Miss Benfey gives the story of great novels in one eve-
ning. Few artists surpass her in this field, which she
originated. Her repertory includes " Les Miserables,"
" A Tale of Two Cities," " Christmas Carol," " Adam
Bede " and " The Mill on the Floss." The readings are
prepared with the idea of giving the same impression to
the audience that the book itself gives. This result is at-
tained not by selected scenes, but in the finding of the
motif of the work, and using that as the keynote to the
54 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
whole. She calls this unique treatment " Dramatization
for Reading."
In the drawing-room and on the stage, at colleges, at
Chautauquas and on the lecture platform her art is equally
effective. Miss Benfey has done much to make American
stories popular in London, where she has given readings
at Stafford House and Grosvenor House, her audiences
including the Princess Christian, the Duchess of York
and the Duchess of Teck, who greatly enjoyed her ren-
dering of Mary E. Wilkins's stories. " I esteem Miss Ida
Benfey's work very highly," writes Miss Wilkins, " and
feel deeply grateful to her for her marvellously faithful
interpretations of my New England characters."
Miss Benfey's readings appeal to women of education
and culture, and are' especially adapted to women's clubs.
Aside from the great novels and especial programmes of
Browning and Tennyson, her children's matinees, made
up wholly of children's stories by well-known authors,
are refreshingly delightful to old and young.
It has remained for this singularly gifted girl to make
a dramatic reading from the Book of Job. This radical
departure will be submitted this season to the New York
public, whose approval she has long since won. How she
came to select Job is best told in her own words : " The
inspiration came," said Miss Benfey, " through reading
the history of Elizabeth Fry, who gave such effective
readings in Newgate Prison early in the century that the
great lords and ladies of London stood in the corridors
to hear her, entranced by the marvel of her power.
Later I heard Felix Adler state in a lecture that the books
of Job and Isaiah were the two greatest lyric poems. I
be^an reading Job from a purely literary point of view.
i became so impressed with the beauty, power and
DRAMATIC ART. 55
humaneness of the book that I began studying it for the
purpose of dramatic reading."
Miss Benfey has given more than three years' study to
Job. Leading Biblical scholars are interested in the out-
come of her unique venture. The reading fills an entire
evening. The King James version -is used. "Job, an
Epic of the Inner Life," is the only written tragedy which
ends happily, and its humour does not escape Miss Benfey's
subtle art.
When not on the road giving readings (dates for which
can be secured by addressing Messrs. Gottschalk and
Alpuente, No. 21 East Twentieth St., New York City, or
Central Lyceum Bureau, Rochester, N. Y.), Miss Benfey
may be found in her charming studio, No. i West Eighty-
seventh St., where she is never too busy to lend a helping
hand to the struggling aspirant, and shed the sunshine of
her great, warm heart on all that are fortunate enough to
come within her ken.
DRAMATIC TRAINING IN COLLEGE.
// Is Not Now Thought Impossible That a College Girl May
Yet Produce the Long- Expected American Drama.
" IF there are more women than ever before, there are
more professions open to them,'' said a Vassar graduate,
who has made a success of her chosen profession, to a
representative of The Tribune recently. " I became an
actress because I had dramatic talent and because I knew
that my education would be a great help to me in reach-
ing the coveted goal.
" The alumnae of more than one of our women's colleges
include a professional actress. The ambitions of under-
graduates and longings for the stage find an outlet these
56 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
days in the various clubs devoted to histrionic art in which
the colleges abound. Not only in portrayal of character,
in elocutionary effect, stage setting and costuming are in-
genuity and keen dramatic instinct discernible, but the
constructive faculty is often strikingly apparent in the
cleverness with which students adapt plays, frequently
producing original dramas worthy of public rendition.
" It is not improbable that a Vassar, Smith, Wellesley,
Radcliffe or Bryn Mawr girl may yet produce the long-
expected American drama.
" In Vassar's tentative days a friend presented the dra-
matic society with five sets of scenery. With this nucleus
the properties have grown until Vassar could take to the
road to-day better equipped than many professional com-
panies. It confines itself chiefly to modern plays.
"At Smith College greater attention is given to legiti-
mate drama perhaps than at any other. It has four dramat-
ic societies. The oldest society at Wellesley is dramatic,
the Shakespeare being a branch of the London society.
Every spring it gives a play of the immortal bard.
"While dramatic performances are not encouraged at
Bryn Mawr, two or three plays are given annually in the
gymnasium. Dramas at Bryn Mawr, unlike Vassar, must
be original. The Idlers of Radcliffe are wont to give a
drama every three weeks. As fun is the object of the
club, travesty prevails, and is almost always original.
Most of the colleges have given Greek plays.
" Some eight years ago the success of ' Electra ' at
Smith in the original Greek arrested the attention of the
collegiate world. Since the days of Sophocles it is asserted
the world has not seen a more accurate setting of a Greek
play than ' Antigone/ given several years ago at Vassar.
Perfect in its lines as erudite Greek professorship could
make them, the cast was then turned over to Professor
DRAMATIC ART. 57
Franklin Sargent, director of the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts."
" It was interesting to watch, as the rehearsals pro-
gressed, the triumph of mind over matter," said Professor
Sargent, in speaking of the educational benefits to be
derived from the training involved in a Greek play. " At
first the most graceful girl in the parlour was awkward on
the stage ; but their finely disciplined minds soon yielded
like plastic clay. They grasped every suggestion and
responded effectively. When I returned to my school,
made up largely of indifferently educated material, I was
struck with the difference and the uphill work of impart-
ing dramatic training to the undisciplined mind."
VOCAL MUSIC.
WOULD SHE BE A SOPRANO?
The Aspirant to Honours Must Study Faithfully. — Six Years
of Preparation Not too Much. — A Good Voice Best at Forty.
IF asked for a general statement as to who can learn to
sing, I should say, " Any one who possesses a fair amount
of talent, a good musical ear and plenty of persever-
ance." But the truth is, it is not possible to make any
rule, the exceptions will be so largely in excess. In no
other line of study, perhaps, is it necessary to make so
many exceptions as with vocal students. There are so
many things besides mere voice to be taken into consid-
eration— temperament, physique, mentality, etc. — that I
would never feel justified in telling any pupil absolutely,
"You can," or "You cannot make a success," until I had
opportunity to test not only the voice, but the mental
capacity and ability for persevering, painstaking study.
Pupils with only two or three notes in their voices, and
those rather bad, have often come to me for lessons, and
by all known or excepted rules I should have said they
could never learn to sing an ordinary ballad ; yet, by
persistent digging at note after note, they have within
three years' time developed sufficient voice to sing
sweetly and acceptably songs of a high character.
It does not follow because a pupil has a perfect organ
and a good voice that she has the intellectuality and
perseverance to make a good singer. Pupils with fine
VOCAL MUSIC. 59
voices, but a few grave faults, often tax my patience to
the utmost by their careless study.
Others, able to take only the most ordinary tones, and
with little apparent musical talent, have developed beau-
tiful voices by careful, intelligent study. In fact, some
of my pupils now filling the best church positions had the
least musical talent to begin with ; but because they
were good students and had large imitative ability they
have reached the desired result in spite of the seeming
lack of natural endowment. I lay stress on " imitative
ability " because in my teaching I have found it plays so
large a part in developing students rapidly.
As to age when vocal training should begin, I would
say not earlier than seventeen years. This is not so
much because of lack of physical development as because
pupils are not far enough advanced mentally, have not
learned to concentrate the attention, to think clearly or
comprehend fully what the teacher is endeavouring to
impart, and are likely to acquire habits of careless study
that will be very detrimental later. There are excep-
tions to this rule, but in my wide experience, extending
over many years, with hundreds of voices, the most satis-
factory results have been attained by beginning between
the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years.
To begin much later than this and make any large
degree of success, the pupil must have exceptional musical
ability.
The time required to fit pupils for concert, church and
oratorio, or opera, varies as much as do the dispositions,
talents and perceptive powers of students, and it is
impossible to declare that any given number of years or
months will be the exact time in which the desired result
may be obtained. Unfortunately there are some teachers
— but they are few — who, for the paltry pecuniary gain,
60 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
•
promise to fit pupils to secure church positions within
one year ; but no conscientious teacher would dare to
guarantee anything of the kind. Several times in my
experience pupils with considerable talent and close
application have in two years — and in a few cases, in one
year — secured solo church positions, but it would be mis-
leading to say that many students could do so. In fact,
the majority could not. To make an artist or artistic
singer requires, in my opinion, from six to ten years of
study.
But the real artist never ceases to study. There are
many pleasing singers before the public who have not
studied so much, to be sure, but they were richly endowed
by nature, and by a happy combination of circumstances
have attained popularity. These, however, I do not call
artists, and popularity should not be the sole aim of the
student.
How many lovely voices come before the public for a
short time and disappear, never to be heard of again, for
the reason that, having no method, the vocal chords be-
come strained, or throat disease is contracted ; whereas
a little more time given to the study of method in the
beginning would have assured them years of success.
With judicious use, a properly trained voice should
grow better, fuller and richer, until its greatest breadth is
reached, between thirty-five and forty.
The amount of study relatively required to prepare pupils
for the different branches of a musical career is in about
the following order : Ordinary concert work, first, or the
least time ; church and oratorio, more time ; opera, most
time.
The ordinary concert singer must have a good voice
and pleasing personality, but she is not necessarily a
thorough musician. She can easily acquire a concert
OF THE
VOCAL MUSIC. 61
repertory of three or four arias, with a goodly supply of
ballads for encores ; in these she has been coached by
her teacher ; and if she have sufficient self-confidence can
make her debut in concert with a reasonable assurance of
success.
Church and oratorio singing requires good ensemble
work, reliability, independence, ability to read and lead
well, and a good, solid foundation of study.
As to the needs and requirements of the student of
opera, no limit can be placed on the study of the voice it
requires, and our music-loving American public places the
standard higher each year.
The cost per year in New York for tuition and board
ranges from $600 to $1,000, according to the price paid
for board, as the charge for lessons is $4 and $5, and a
pupil should always take two lessons a week.
The average church-choir salary is about $600 for solo
soprano and $450 for solo contralto. Eight hundred dol-
lars for soprano and $600 for contralto are considered an
excellent salary, while $1,000 and $1,200 are first class,
and are paid by several of the t>est churches in New York
and Boston. Second quartet work commands about $250
a year for soprano and $200 for contralto, while chorus
salaries range from $i to $3 a Sunday. In smaller cities
salaries range from $300 to $800.
In selecting the special branch of music to which you
will devote yourself, the quality of voice must be con-
sidered to a large extent. How many debuts that might
have been great triumphs have been comparative failures
because this fact was not carefully enough considered !
A lyric soprano who could have won marked success
in her own musical sphere of colourature singing fails
because circumstances or bad advice leads her to appear
in the heavy role that can only be acceptably sung by a
62 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
dramatic soprano. Many voices are ruined by this strain-
ing after a quality they do not possess. Teachers should
be especially careful of this one point.
I often have pupils who are determined to acquire at
any cost notes that are not in the voice, and that probably
never can be acquired, or, if so, only by years of the most
patient study. Parents frequently insist that their daugh-
ters must be able to sing a high soprano when they pos-
sess only the most ordinary mezzo-soprano voice. But
the conscientious teacher will insist that every voice under
her tuition must develop smoothly and naturally.
In the selection of a teacher, I would say : " Look with
suspicion on the teacher who fails to lay great stress on
method or who flatters a great deal. The teacher who
impresses on you the necessity for patient, continued
work, is frank and persistent in criticising your faults, and
will not accept a poor lesson, is the one you are looking
for, if you are in earnest. Having found her, give her
your best efforts, for she can only teach ; you yourself
must make the application,"
MARIE SEYMOUR BISSELL.
BEGINNERS IN SONG PARTS.
A Good Voice a Means of Support. — Chances and Salaries on
the Stage. — Good Chorus Singers Always in Demand.
YOUNG women who are equipped with good singing
voices, in addition to dramatic ability, enjoy a better
prospect of prompt engagement and future advancement
than other aspirants to life on the stage.
A few voices command instant recognition, even in
grand opera, but it is not of these that I speak.
VOCAL MUSIC. 63
If the singer is without experience, she gains a certain
advantage over the new actress at the agencies, because
a voice can be tested and recommended, where fitness for
a speaking part cannot. I have in my agency an assistant
whose sole duty it is to listen to the voices of those who
desire to be singing actresses, and to pass upon their
fitness for the stage.
There is always a demand for good chorus singers.
The salary paid is a fair one — $12 to $18 per week — and
everything is supplied in the way of costumes, except
shoes and tights, and the young woman does not need a
large amount of money as a reserve while waiting for an
engagement. Most singers, except the greatest, start in
the chorus, and it is an excellent thing to do this, unless
one has had previous dramatic experience as an educa-
tional measure.
When a girl comes to me I look first at her personal
appearance — that is what the public does — then at her
carriage. Her voice and temperament are next in order.
Of these qualifications the first and last named are most
important. All the rest may be acquired.
As to the advisibility of trying new material, managers
differ. Most of them are wary of tyros, but some of the
best are forever looking for new talent. Several have a
number of people in their employment always, on salaries
of $5 or $6 a week, ready for work when opportunity pre-
sents itself.
All good managers and dramatic agents are critical of
the dress and behaviour of women who present themselves
for engagements. The most modest, lady-like and unob-
trusive, other things being equal, make the best impres-
sion and have the best chance of recognition. She who
wears all over her the fact that she is an actress, or wants
to be, finds that people become prejudiced against her
64 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
from the start. Whether she plays the part of a lady on
the stage or not, she must play it off the stage, if she is to
succeed.
E. L. FERNANDEZ.
A WIDE FIELD FOR SWEET VOICES.
NEARLY every woman endowed by nature with good
vocal organs muses at times over the possibility of success
on the public stage.
If she belongs to a prosperous family and has no reason
for seeking an independent income, she may resist the
temptation to appear as a member of some regular dra-
matic concert or operatic company, and may devote her
talents to giving happiness to others in private life.
If, however, the necessity of a career confronts her, she
may seek a connection with an established company,
beginning either as chorus girl or "understudy," and
waiting wearily for her own chance to appear before the
footlights or going at once into the chorus, and, after a
suitable apprenticeship, gaining a position as a recognised
public singer. With talent, she may then hope for earn-
ings beyond the routine salary given to persons of aver-
age abilities.
Supposing that the period of tuition, the severe disci-
pline and the dangers which threaten the new voice, and
other preliminaries, as described by Miss Bissell and Mrs.
Fernandez, have been passed, the weary waiting is over
and the singer has reached the long-desired recognition as
a "star." A few become "stars" without previous pro-
bation. What rewards may they then expect from the
exercise of their art ?
These depend, of course, entirely upon the excellence
VOCAL MUSIC. 65
of the voice and the popular demand for good singers.
Every operatic manager can tell the beginner of the
scarcity of really fine voices in the world, and of the prices
which managers are willing to pay to secure them. The
sum of $200 a week is not too much to expect for a singer
with magnetism of manner, coupled' with exceptional
purity and sweetness of voice, quite early in her career.
From that point on the rewards increase until $1,000 to
$2,500 a night will be paid to any one who is worth it.
Patti has earned $5,000. Patti, Emma Eames, Nordica,
Emma Abbott, Albani and other American singers have
made fortunes or the beginnings of them in the field of
operatic singing. Other fortunes await the newcomers
who possess voices such as these.
THE LECTURE FIELD.
LYCEUM STARS.
Long Experience with Woman Lecturers Past and Present. —
Major Pond Says Frankly that Maude Ballington
Booth Is the Only One People Will Now
Pay to Hear. — Some Notable
Careers.
" I AM requested by Mr. Mowey to say that a hen will
undertake to crow like a cock at the Town Hall this
afternoon at 5 o'clock. Anybody who wants to hear that
kind of music will, of course, attend."
The announcement above was made by the pastor of
the Congregational Church in Maiden, Mass., in the
autumn of 1847. A woman was to address a meeting of
the Anti-Slavery Society, of which William Lloyd Gar-
rison, Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker were the
presiding geniuses. Everybody besieged Mr. Mowey to
learn what kind of a hen it was. He told them it was
Miss Lucy Stone, a young woman who was graduated
from a college out West, in an Ohio town called Oberlin,
where women were allowed the same educational priv-
ileges as men. This remarkable announcement was a
great advertisement, and brought together a large meet-
ing.
It was the first time in the lives of the people that a
woman's voice was heard from the rostrum in the cause
of freedom. From that time onward for many years Lucy
THE LECTURE FIELD. 67
Stone travelled and lectured in behalf of woman suffrage
and the slave, suffering the same persecutions as did
Phillips and other lecturers.
One night while speaking in New England a pane of
glass was removed from a window behind the speaker
and a hose put through it. The little girl lecturer was
deluged with ice-water. Wrapping her shawl closely
about her she calmly finished her address. Again, at Cape
Cod, the Anti-Slavery Society held a meeting in a grove.
The mob surrounded the speakers and roughly handled
Mr. Foster and Miss Stone. The bravery of the latter so
won the admiration of the leader of the mob that he de-
fended her with a club, and stood by her while from a
stump she addressed the multitude. The listeners were
so moved by her speech that they subsided into quiet,
and at its conclusion a collection of twenty dollars was
taken up to pay Foster for his coat.
When Lucy Stone died, at Dorchester, Mass., October,
1893, the entire press of America and the civilised world
eulogized her. The Boston Herald said : " She goes to
her grave honoured, beloved and mourned by the whole
American people." The New York Independent : " The
death of Lucy Stone removes one of the world's greatest
benefactors." Harpers Weekly: "Her life was full of
earnestness, goodness, blessedness, and the world is better
that she lived." I knew Lucy Stone only slightly during
the last decade of her life. She was small in stature,
dainty in dress, and possessed a voice of singular sweet-
ness. Hers was a sympathetic and charming personality.
Never again will there be a woman orator of her type.
Conditions are wanting. She was a product of the times.
The first woman's name on the list of the Redpath
Lyceum Bureau, in 1869, was Mrs. Mary A. Livermore,
and it has remained there ever since. She has travelled
68 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
more widely and delivered more lectures than any other
woman of whom we have any record. She wrote me that,
notwithstanding she had averaged more than one hundred
lyceum lectures a year since the war, she had delivered
more than one thousand lectures on temperance and over
one thousand in the cause of woman suffrage, besides
morning lectures before schools and colleges.
Later she helped to organize the United States Sanitary
and Christian Commission, which raised over $60,000,000
for the soldiers in our hospitals.
What an ideal of womanhood ! Mrs. Livermore is still
living in her pretty home in Mehon, Mass., where she not
long ago celebrated her golden wedding. She is still
available for the lyceum. The interest and activity of
her eventful life have kept her young.
At the close of the Civil War Anna Dickinson was the
greatest woman on the American lyceum platform. She
made her first appearance at a woman's rights convention
held in Philadelphia about the beginning of the war. At
that meeting a man made a bitter, sarcastic speech against
woman's equal political rights. After listening to his
tirade the young Quaker girl arose and walked down the
aisle to where he sat, shook her fist in his face, and began
to answer him. The brilliancy of her rhetoric and the
force of her logic astonished everybody who heard her.
From that time until she retired from the platform she
was without a rival. She was sought on every side.
Only Beecher and Gough surpassed her as lyceum favour-
ites.
Miss Dickinson was not satisfied with being the greatest
actress, in a true sense, that her country had produced.
She had a passion for the mimic stage, and yearned to be
i great player. She made the essay, and failed, of course.
Not even her most devoted friends could repudiate the
THE LECTURE FIELD. 69
fact that she was an utter failure. Despite her great
genius as an orator, Thespian laurels escaped her wholly.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are and
have been for many years among the foremost of our
women orators. They will occupy in history the same
position in the cause of woman's rights as do Phillips and
Garrison on the anti-slavery question. They are sincere
pioneers in their work. Mrs. Stanton is the most
scholarly woman in the field. The signs of the time indicate
that these great women may live to see their cause triumph.
Julia Ward Howe is recognised as one of the most
refined, high-bred, noble women of the age. Her plea
has been humanity. She was one of the first to edit an
Abolition paper, in Boston. With her husband, Dr.
Howe, she brought about a meeting in the early sixties
between Abolitionists on one side and pro-slavery men
on the other, in Music Hall, Boston, where Robert
Toombs, of Georgia, and Sam Houston, of Texas, had
leading parts.
Those were lively times, Mrs. Howe has told me. Mrs.
Howe has lectured in almost every State of the Union.
Not later than 1894 she made a long Western and South-
western tour. She has lectured in Paris in the French
language ; also in Athens and Vienna.
Mrs. Howe's place in history is probably fixed by her
" Battle Hymn of the Republic," sung by every soldier
of the Rebellion and not forgotten during the late war,
rather than by her achievements on the platform. For
more than a quarter of a century these women have given
their best efforts to the lyceum. They have not only
made the platform historic but symbolical of talent,
education, genius and reform.
Where are the women to take their places ? Are they
browsing in preparatory schools ? I have been looking
70 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
for their successors, but to date have failed to find the
quality of material of which these remarkable women
were made. They were the gifted offsprings of the
colossal contests of their era. Magazines galore give us
pretty photographs of women of our time, prominent on
its stage and in the lyceum, but who knows them ? Where
are their audiences ?
Mrs. Maude Ballington Booth is the only woman
orator of this decade whom the public will turn out and
pay to hear. Why ? First of all, she is the ablest woman
orator, in my opinion, in America. Her cause, prison
reform and the work of the Volunteers of America, is
most worthy. She is probably the most beloved woman
in the land. Certainly she is the most attractive of all
our women speakers. She/ has fire and magnetism — gifts
of the highest oratorical order, sustained and animated
by deep conviction, high purpose and burning earnestness.
These great essentials are of paramount importance to
success on the platform. The woman who does not
possess them by nature can rarely if ever acquire them
by art, and without them she cannot hope for the laurels
that endure, and had better eschew lecturing as a means
of livelihood.
J. B. POND.
ILLUSTRATED LECTURING.
A Pleasant and Lucrative Field. — The Preparation of Text,
Slide Painting, Camera Operating and Booking of
Dates.
WOMEN'S schools and colleges abound to-day in debat-
ing societies and organizations which invite the timid to
THE LECTURE FIELD. 71
" speak out in meeting." The rapid spread of women's
clubs continues to reveal forensic gifts that would other-
wise in all probability have lain dormant. The ease and
fluency of expression acquired at college and in clubs is
naturally increasing the number of women who find an
agreeable and lucrative livelihood in the illustrated lec-
ture field. There is scarcely a feature pertaining to the
preparation, booking or delivery of an illustrated lecture
which is not within the province of the right woman. In
choice of subject for general entertainment or instruction
it is claimed that women have more originality than men.
" It is a widely acknowledged fact," a public speaker
tells The Tribune, " that when women speak in public
they generally have something to tell. Their voices may
be painful, their expression crude, their embarrassment
pitiable, but at bottom there is usually something tangi-
ble, while frequent attendance at men's gatherings is liable
to reveal a waste of verbosity, and, as a rule, little that is
to the point. The lecture field has many phases which
the novice would do well to consider carefully before
embarking in it for a livelihood. Lecturing seems easy
to the uninitiated. If the testimony of veterans is to be
credited, however, it is a trying profession. Is there any
calling that has not its trials? "
" Aside from the fatigue of travel, stage fright and a
realisation of the responsibility of facing an audience and
bringing the lecture up to their expectations," says Miss
Mary Proctor, the well-known astronomical lecturer, "I
find lecturing a most pleasant profession. The remunera-
tion is excellent. If a woman so inclined has some other
work to help pay her expenses while she works her way
to public favour, I would say let her try lecturing by all
means."
It is five years since Miss Proctor took to the platform.
72 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Since then she has given more than three hundred lec-
tures and travelled to all parts of the country. Successor
to an illustrious name, the way was practically open to
her. She was reared in the lecture atmosphere. Thor-
oughly imbued with the work, she has no competitors in
her line.
" One must be fond of the subject," said Miss Proctor.
" Otherwise the audience will detect that it is purely a
money-making venture, and she will fail to elicit or hold
their attention. Curiosity may bring an audience once,
but merit alone will bring it a second time. There is no
public so quick as the American. It knows on a second
return whether a lecturer has improved. One must study
constantly to improve. Study audiences, introduce new
and pleasing features, and never apologise. The fact
that the lecturer is a woman will not condone failure in
the eyes of a public that pays to be entertained or in-
structed.
" The woman lecturer must above all learn to keep her
contracts at any hazapd. It is a great detriment for one
who hopes to make her living as a lecturer to start out as
a fad. One season is the paying life of a New York fad.
She must take and maintain a professional basis if she
would have permanent success. Her repertory must
include at least three lectures. The subject must be
fresh and unhackneyed. Lectures of travel are over-
done. The illustrations must be plentiful, novel, beauti-
ful and artistic, and the subject chosen one in which the
lecturer has warm interest.
" No woman should attempt to address an audience
until she has learned to breathe properly, otherwise her
voice will fail her. Vocal or breathing lessons are of the
greatest importance. Intellectually and materially
equipped, the 'rub ' comes in securing engagements. It
THE LECTURE FIELD. 73
is a distinctive art. Many lecturers find it much more
satisfactory and remunerative to manage the booking of
their lectures personally than to put it in the hands of a
bureau. One may make dates to suit "herself and save
the percentage agents or bureaus exact."
The increasing popularity of the illustrated lecture has
opened up two other novel fields of labour, in which not a
few women are earning comfortable incomes — namely,
lantern-slide painting and camera operating. Large num-
bers of women are employed in painting coloured slides ;
some in the service of individuals, the majority in the
employ of stereopticon firms. Copies of photographs,
engravings and wood cuts are photographed on the
glass slides. The slide painter then applies the colour,
transparent pigments being used. Success lies in deft-
ness of handling. So critical and exacting has the public
become as regards coloured slides that women are now
met in the galleries abroad copying the colours of the
original pictures directly on to the lantern slides.
Miss Katherine Breed, of Chicago, spent months on the
Mediterranean, in the Orient and in Yellowstone Park, and
the results of her skill were seen during last winter at
Burton Holmes's lectures. Miss Breed owes her skill
largely to her uncle, the late Dr. David Breed, an artist,
who discovered a secret process which greatly advanced
the artistic value of slide-painting. Miss Breed is a rela-
tive of the veteran stereopticon lecturer, John H.
Stoddard.
It takes an expert slide-painter from half an hour to
three hours to paint one slide. It is paid by the piece,
and $4 is an expert's earnings when employed by a firm.
The work is steady throughout the year.
Professor Bickmore, of the American Museum of
Natural History, has in his employ Miss Bertha Fuller
74 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Sexton, whose work is confined exclusively to the paint-
ing of flower slides.
Only one woman in New York has yet entered prob-
ably the most desirable part of the lecture business, Mrs.
Campbell, wife of Captain Campbell, the lecturer on
Hawaii and naval subjects. She is a professional camera
operator.
The lecture season extends from October to May. A
lecture lasts one hour and a half, and a good operator
commands from $8 to $10 an evening within city limits.
WHAT LECTURERS EARN.
Oratory in Lessening Vogue. — Payments as Large as Ever,
Notwithstanding, for a Nights Work. — A Lyceum
Manager s Experience. — Popular Lecturers.
THE lecture platform is not now such a promising field
for talent as it has been in former years. University ex-
tension, women's clubs and the magazines have nearly
taken away the prerogative of instruction once monopo-
lized by the lecturer. People study at home now, and go
out to be amused. Unless there is some special subject
at command, one not yet presented to the public, there is
small encouragement to be held out to women who desire
to enter into this line of work.
In the old days, Anna Dickinson, Kate Field, Francis
Willard, and, best of all, Mrs. Livermore, could not
begin to fill the lecture engagements open to them.
After Mrs. Lockwood made her famous campaign for
President she was almost as much in demand.
At the present time, Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of
the famous astronomer, and herself an astronomer of
THE LECTURE FIELD. 75
note, lectures with success on topics relating to her
science. Miss Annie S. Peck and Vandelia Varnum are
also prosperous in their work. Miss Esther Lyon attracts
large audiences to her lecture on Alaska and the Klon-
dike, a timely subject, and there is always a certain
demand for temperance lecturers.
While the field is now distinctly limited, there is always
room for the best talent, here as elsewhere, and a general
idea of the requirements and compensation is gladly
given.
In the first place, it should be frankly stated that no-
where else does reputation go so far toward success.
One must have established the fact that she knows her
subject before the public will show any interest in hear-
ing a woman talk, or a man, either.
If a woman has achieved prominence in some direction,
if she has travelled or explored some new territory, and
has either written about it, or has been written about her-
self, she already possesses an interest for the outside
world. If she has earned an honourable place in art,
literature, science, philanthropy or reform, she easily
attracts an audience. But if she has accomplished none
of these things, she can hardly expect to find a foothold
on the lecture platform. The lecturer speaks as " one
having authority/' and the first business is to convince
people of the authority.
The fees paid for platform work are as large as ever, in
spite of the lessening vogue of oratory. A lyceum
manager or lecture course committee pays from $25 to
$50 a night, and in special cases $100. Four nights a
week is the least that is expected from a lecturer during
the four or five months of the season.
The most popular lecturers appear every night in the
week, Sundays excepted. The fees appear large, but when
76 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
half is deducted, as it must be, for travelling expenses,
hotel bills and minor expenses, the profits are only fairly
good.
The form of platform work best adapted to the woman
of to-day is entertainments of the monologue or imper-
sonating character. To a talented, attractive and mag-
netic young woman this work may be found quite
profitable. There are a great many in it, to be sure, but
there is room for better ones always.
The elocutionist is paid from $25 to $40 a night during
the season. If she can obtain a position with a concert
company, or with other entertainers, she may command a
salary of $30 a week, or even more. She will have her
travelling expenses and sometimes her hotel expenses
paid, in addition to her salary, which will not be the case
if she appears alone,
ALONZO FOSTER.
STARS OF LESSER DEGREE.
Drawing-Room Lecturers. — Intellectual Women May Earn
a Comfortable Support Without Appearing in Public
Halls.
IN his paper on "Lyceum Stars " Major Pond dwells
on conspicuous examples of women lecturers. Mr. Foster,
who is a lyceum manager of repute, refers to a number
who have made name and even a competence in the pro-
fession. But " there are others."
In the large cities of the United States, collectively,
there are scores of women, some of whom do not aspire
to abandon domestic life altogether, others being re-
strained from travel among the States by duties at home,
THE LECTURE FIELD. 77
who find congenial employment, which, at any rate, serves
the purposes of a livelihood, in the delivery of lectures
upon what may be called the drawing-room stage. Such
women earn $500, $1,000, $2,000, and sometimes even
more, a year, in this pleasant, but labourious, field of effort.
While the rewards are attractive, let it not be under-
stood that they can be won without strong effort. In
fact, the labour of preparation is so great that few wo-
men are equal to the undertaking or willing to undergo
the toil.
No mere neophyte can hope to succeed on the drawing-
room stage any more than in the larger public field. The
fair lecturer must have something to say, the more fresh
and original the better ; and she must have the ability to
say it well. She need not have acquired public reputa-
tion, as one who has run for Governor of a State or spent
her life in demanding the suffrage for her sex. She need
not be so dramatic in delivery as to insure success in a
theatrical entertainment, were it convenient for her to
embark upon the stormy sea of adventure in the drama.
But she must be able to instruct and entertain, both by
the freshness and value of what she has to say and by her
manner. Of course, if she has conducted a successful
magazine or newspaper, or if, as Mrs. Runkle did, she
has aided in the editing of an important literary work,
she need not despise the advantages which publicity will
bring her.
Preparation for a lecture course on the private stage,
such as is given every winter in most of our large cities,
in the houses of a few rich and fashionable friends,
involves weeks of determined collection of materials from
the libraries or expensive trips to foreign lands taken
solely for the same purpose. This, perhaps, is equally
true of any one who wishes to enter into the general lee-
78 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ture field. It is true, nevertheless, of the private lecture
course.
The lecturer is a raconteur, a teacher, one who has
something to say, about which she knows more than her
hearers. Herein she differs from that other great teacher,
the newspaper. The newspaper commends itself to read-
ers largely by telling them about things they are already
familiar with to a certain extent. Everyone who attends
the opera and knows all about the night's performance
wants to read about the affair next day. The lecturer
takes another line.
Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton became deeply versed
in the line of topics upon which she lectured to such good
advantage by previous services as editor of a religious
weekly. Another lecturer makes a business of taking a
foreign trip when a new lecture must be composed to
entertain audiences who have heard all there was to say
on subjects previously presented to them.
Whether the subject of the lecture be Shakespeare, the
literature of the Middle Ages, the rights of woman, Bible
history, international law (and there are lecture courses
for the drawing-room stage on this formidable topic), if
the lecturer will prepare herself thoroughly and well, and
has the confidence born of a full mind, she may hope to
earn an excellent support, with the aid of a few social
friends. It is the custom to arrange for a course of ten
lectures on any one topic, and two of these are delivered
in the parlours of each of five friends, one of the latter
sometimes acting as treasurer of the course, and thus
lending her influence to its success.
The usual price for a series of ten lectures is $10. And
as a rule it is not difficult to secure an attendance of fifty
women at each lecture. The same lecture may be
delivered in several different localities during the same
THE LECTURE FIELD. 79
season. If her home is in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Chicago or any other Metropolitan city, the lecturer has
all the prosperous communities within a radius of, say,
two hundred miles, at her command for a season's work.
If she lacks personal friends in any of these cities, there
are ways to open the doors of the leading women of the
place, nevertheless.
Cases of success in this field are well known in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and other principal
American cities.
One woman lecturer is well known to have supported
her family during many trying years following her hus-
band's death by drawing-room courses. She educated
her two boys for college, aided to get them established in
business, and bought a house from the proceeds of her
persistent labours in this field. Others win an excellent
support and live in comfort upon their earnings.
An occasional excursion into literary work pure and
simple — the editing of a weekly publication, the compila-
tion of a collection of authors, the writing of a new book,
the reading of newly submitted novels in large publishing
houses, book reviewing, and other such work — may win
the woman lecturer away from this line of effort from
time to time, but the calling is one to which she can return
at any time whenever there is a new subject to talk about
or when convenience serves.
PIANO PLAYING.
BEGIN EARLY.
// Is Hard to Acquire Excellence After Maturity. — Kate S
Chittenden Thinks Native Talent More Needed in In-
strumental than in Vocal Music.
THE qualities essential for a good musician are a sensi-
tive temperament, an acute ear and a logical mind. The
successful musician must possess indomitable persever-
ance, indifference to adverse criticism, and be able to main-
tain steadfastly the pursuit of a distinct aim. While a
musical ear can be cultivated to a .certain extent, and
taste can be stimulated, yet one must have been born
with a natural aptitude for the art to become a good musi-
cian.
I have been interested in hearing of an experiment tried
upon a little child, who, apparently born with no talent, is
being hypnotized once a week, with the idea of develop-
ing a taste for music ; and, according to her teacher, this
hypnotic influence is having the desired effect. But, in
my opinion, it is a most dangerous thing to hypnotize a
child for such a purpose, because it may leave her a prey
to hypnotic influences all her life.
In regard to the age when one should begin the study of
instrumental music, I may quote the great violinist, Joa-
chim, who is reported to have said that to become a
virtuoso it is necessary for the child to begin work at five
years of age in order to train the nerves and muscles to
PIANO PLAYING. 81
control the instrument. Yet early training alone will not
insure virtuosity.
It is interesting to read in the letters of Mrs. Browning
how her little son Penini, the now celebrated painter,
Robert Barrett Browning, was taught the piano by his
father, who sat beside him two hours daily, and that when
he was ten years old he was able to play Beethoven's
Sonata, opus 7, in E flat. Yet he remained a musical
amateur. On the other hand, no one knows to how great
an extent the training of his hands at the piano may have
contributed to his skill as an artist.
One thing is certain, however, the only means by which
complete contol of both hands can be gained is the piano.
The organ and harp each requires the use of both hands,
and all ten fingers ; but the piano alone is able to register
those infinitesimal shades of expression in sound which
indicate the psychological condition of the player. There
is no such thing as touch in organ-playing, because it is
impossible to alter the tone quality in an organ, whereas
on a piano the trained performer registers every passing
mood through his finger-tips.
Certainly, no one who expects to excel as a performer
ought to begin later than ten years old. As to the length
of time requisite to produce a good player, I do not advo-
cate more than three hour's practice daily. Provided
there are force and lucidity of mind in the teacher, and a
concentration of purpose on the part of the pupil, that
amount of practice can safely be set as a limit, although
many students work from five to seven hours a day.
A great deal depends upon the teacher, for a first-class
master in the end may cost less than one whose fees are
smaller. The experienced teacher often makes cross cuts
to results that are never dreamed of in the philosophy of
the smaller members of the profession. The best players
82 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
do not always make the best teachers, especially with
young pupils, but for advanced students there is nothing
to take the place of the inspiration that comes from an
artist, even though that artist may have retired from
active service as a performer.
No one can become a finished musician in any less time
than is required to become a fully equipped physician,
lawyer, literary man or artist. Each year the examining
boards of all the great professional schools raise the stan-
dard of work that is required for a diploma, and it is the
constant raising of the standard that is eliminating the
poor material from the ranks of American professional
men. It is the same with music and musicians ; what
was considered a fine musical education twenty years
ago would be second-rate to-day. In fact, not only
concert players, but teachers, are compelled to grow in
artistic stature from season to season, or be content to be
left behind in the march of progress.
As far as methods of study and practice are concerned,
I am committed to the teaching of the synthetic method
of piano-playing. The cost of a pianoforte education is
governed by the length of one's purse. It is a good plan
for a student of limited means to place herself in the
hands of an eminent teacher, who will appoint an instruc-
tor whose work can be supervised. The cost of such a
course need not exceed $100 a season, because there are
so many talented young teachers who are only too glad to
avail themselves of the opportunity of working under the
advice of their own teachers.
Another plan is for the student to join some of the
classes held by such men as Rafael Joseffy, Dr. Mason
and Albert Ross Parsons, each of whom is engaged, more
or less, in critical class work.
In some instances students have been known to attend
PIANO PLAYING. ,S3
the courses of all three during the same season, and the
results from hearing the same composition treated by each
master have been most inspiring. This form of work has
grown in popularity during the last few years, and fills a
special place. Many of the prominent teachers give
scholarships to talented pupils for the sake of the artistic
results that can be achieved with such pupils, and fre-
quently the names of the most successful performers upon
school and college programmes are those of pupils whose
education is given them gratuitously.
With regard to teaching, I believe that women are pre-
eminently fitted for elementary work, because, as a rule,
they understand and can manage children better than men
can, and are much more patient. Where a woman stands
in the front rank of artists there is no reason why she
should not do exactly as good work with advanced pupils
as a man does. Out of the scores of teachers to whom it
has been my privilege to explain the synthetic method,
the best all-round work that has been displayed came
from the pupils of a woman teacher.
I am sometimes asked why so few women hold organ
positions. The last issue of " The Church Choir Directory "
gives the number of organists in New York and Brooklyn
as 398, out of which 88 are women. Probably nine out of
every ten organists of either sex are amateurs, who have
undertaken to play in church on the strength of possess-
ing a more or less limited knowledge of the piano.
Of the women who hold or have held prominent posi-
tions there are Mrs. Charlotte Wells Sanger, Miss Harriett
B. Judd, Miss Josephine Losee, Miss Kate Stella Burr, and
formerly there were Mrs. Christopher and Miss Augusta
Lowell, all of whom have been able to hold their high
places because of their thorough work.
Comparatively few of the churches, outside of the
84 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Episcopal ones, with boy choirs, have trained musicians
at the organ.
So far as I know, the salaries of piano teachers in
boarding-schools range from $300 to $1,200 a year. Where
teachers residing in New York go out of town to schools
the fees are larger in proportion, ranging from $10 to $15
a day. The smallest salary I have ever heard of was $150,
offered by a fashionable New York school for a season of
thirty-four weeks, with twenty-four hours of instruction
to be given in each week, making an average of about
19 cents an hour. It was impossible to secure any one to
teach in a day school at that figure.
Good private lessons, from conscientious, painstaking
young teachers, can be had in New York for as little as
$i an hour, occasionally for less, and fees range all the
way from that price up to $12.
KATE S. CHITTENDEN.
THE TUNING OF PIANOS.
PIANO tuning is quite a different matter from piano
playing ; and the fine musician is quite apt to look on
this humble branch of the art of evoking sweet sounds
from a popular instrument as lying more within the
domain of the mechanical than the artistic. It requires,
however, the same acute sense of harmony and concord
and at least a smattering of the art of playing the piano.
In some American music schools tuning is now taught
to women, and when one considers the vast number of
pianos whicti are to be found in every township, hamlet
and city in the United States, one will readily see that the
field for this class of work is virtually unlimited. Abroad,
especially in England, there are many women tuners.
PIANO PLAYING. 85
In factories it is probable that men will hold the
ground for many years to come, because tuning calls for
some muscular strength ; and when a person is employed
in this branch of work all day the ability to withstand
fatigue is a factor of consequence. Tuners who are
employed by the week receive from $15 to $25, and even
larger salaries. Those who go to the houses of the owners
of pianos and put the instruments in order there receive
from $1.50 to $2.50 for each piano tuned.
The art of tuning is easily learned by any one who has
an ear for concord and harmony. Many an amateur
pianist has learned it simply for the pleasure involved,
and has tuned the family piano with perfect success for
years. The few implements required can be bought for
a trifle at any piano store. Manuals can be bought
which explain the whole matter.
DOES PIANO STUDY PAY?
Good Prices for Good Pianists. — Private Teaching May Win
a Good Support. — Soloists and Accompanists Do Better.
DOES piano study pay for woman ? If she makes music
her life study, yes ! In the first place, no musician can
be such in the fullest sense without at least some knowl-
edge of the piano ; and if, later, a woman desires to
make a special study of another instrument, or of the
voice, she will find her piano work, if it has been of the
right kind, a most material aid. It is a fact that there
are comparatively few world-renowned pianists. Yet the
profession is a broad one, and provided that a woman has
a thorough musical education, she may earn her living
aside from being a soloist.
86 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
As to the highest price paid to any pianist, Mr. Pade-
rewski, in one of his Chicago matinees, took in about
$7,000. This is, of course, an exceptional case.
The most celebrated pianists under salary to a manager
have been paid in many cases as much as $500 for one
concert, and $700 in one special instance, although usually
money is lost in paying such prices. The average pianist
gets about $150 to $200 a concert.
Accompanists get $25 and under, according to how
much they have to do and how well they can do it.
" Ensemble work " pays from $50 to $100 a perform-
ance, according to the artist.
That which is all around the most satisfactory, aside
from solo work, is teaching. While teaching is at times
uninteresting, there is much that is pleasant in the life of
a successful teacher. To watch the progress of a bright
student gives immense satisfaction, and there is a sense
of unity between teacher and pupil when they really work
together. Every true educator must maintain an artistic
ideal not only for herself, but as well for her pupil. If
she will succeed, she must not only correct faults and bad
habits, but must inspire those who study under her with
the ambition to live up to that ideal. Personal magnetism
is as much a necessity in the teacher as in the soloist, and
every musician knows that an artist who cannot make his
audience feel with him is a failure.
With very few exceptions private teaching pays better
than that done in any institution. In the latter about
the highest prices generally paid women are from
$1,500 to $1,800 a year. Men receive somewhat higher
salaries, while in private teaching prices range anywhere
from $T to $6 an hour. If she is competent and not in
absolute need of money, it is far better for a girl to wait
for pupils than to teach at low rates. If she cheapens
PIANO PLAYING. 87
her services she will find it difficult to raise her terms
later.
It is rare to reach prominence as a soloist unless study
is begun early in life, not only because of the technical
proficiency which must be acquired, but the enormous
repertory one must possess to be a pianist of the first
rank. Piano literature is unlimited, and years of hard
and patient study combined with God-given talent are
required to become a virtuoso. Parents should remember
this if they have such aspirations for their children, and
should start them at least as early as eight or nine years
of age. As a technician, the American girl develops
more rapidly than the girl of any other country, while
in phrasing and general musical conception she is often
eclipsed by her foreign sisters.
If you have your own plans to make for the future,
study with one who creates in you an ambition to bring
out your very best efforts. You may be sure that no
conscientious teacher will hesitate to criticise when the
occasion requires it. At the same time hear all the good
music you possibly can. This is one of the greatest
sources of musical education, and, by the way, much of
the very best music is never given to the public at all.
If at any time in your life you are fortunate enough to
receive instruction from a great master drop all else and
work. It is an impossibility to combine teaching or any
other outside occupation with piano virtuoso study.
The artist teacher will demand at least four or five hours
a day for methodical practice. Nothing can be accom-
plished in any line without good health, and a certain
amount of outdoor exercise and regular hours for sleep
are absolute necessities for the student.
As regards the time it takes to become a teacher, this
varies with the individual ; but unless, as I have said, one
88 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
has opportunities to work under a great artist, in which
case everything must yield to study, it is well to give a
few lessons all the time in order to gain experience.
When one first begins to teach there is a certain newness
about it all which is embarrassing, but this by degrees
wears away until at last it is perfectly natural to impart
what we wish to make clear. It is a great mistake to
attempt too many things at once. It is equally so to
endeavour to explain to another anything with which you
are not perfectly familiar. Find out what you can do
best, adhere strictly to it, work with obstinate resolution,
and you will not fail. A woman easily discouraged
should never enter the professional world, for she will
encounter many difficulties and disappointments before
her hopes are realised. Faithful perseverance, however,
is almost always rewarded at last. It is the woman really
in earnest who commands the respect of those with whom
she comes in contact. She makes friends of the right
class and holds them, which means much to her who is
about to enter upon a musical career.
Speaking from a financial point of view, a woman must,
of course, possess some business capacity in order to
make money, but the artist loves her art, and if she be
truly wedded to it it will not forsake her in the end.
MlLTONELLA BEARDSLEY.
PLAYING AND TEACHING.
Suggestions by a Specialist in Piano Technique, Well Known in
Chicago and New York City.
TEACHING and playing the piano seem to be two dis-
tinct branches. Many skilled pianists are unskilled
PIANO PLAYING. 89
teachers. They seem powerless to impart what is at
their finger-ends. Why is that ?
First, a teacher should be trained to teach, or at least
know why certain causes produce certain effects.
Second, piano teaching should be divided into different
departments. The training of muscles- for technique is
quite different from training for tone or tonal effect, and
both are much less confusing to the student when studied
separately. We do not need our ears, but we do need
our eyes to see if fingers act properly, and we all know
that good technique is the bottom plank of artistic play-
ing. As well give a hatchet to the sculptor and com-
mand him to chisel with it a Venus de Medici as expect
clumsy fingers to execute a Chopin nocturne.
Let us renew the ordinary music lesson. Teachers,
pupil, keyboard and instructor's book are all thrown
together. The child is, told that C is in such a place on
the keyboard and a corresponding C on the music scroll ;
that the hand must be held in position, the fingers must
be supple, time kept — in fact, eyes and ears everywhere
until the brain is tired out and the entire body under such
a tension that free and independent movements are
impossible.
Of course, all of these things must be learned, but to
do intelligent work each branch ought to be taught sepa-
rately, and as technique, or the mechanical part, requires
the most time and labour, the teacher's thoughts should
be directed to this branch first.
I find from my experience pupils are more easily
interested in thus dividing the hard work.
The teacher who can interest the pupil and make a
player of him can command any price. Klondike is at
her door. Then, too, the piano is especially a commercial
instrument. Unlike the violin and other stringed instru-
90 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ments, its tones are formed, making it accessible to peo-
ple without musical ears. No education is complete
without some musical knowledge. Therefore, I fail to
see why woman has not at her service all she is capable
of commanding in this field.
M. AUGUSTA BOSWORTH.
LITERARY MUSICALE.
Mrs. Alexander and Miss West. — Two Charming Women
Who Have Come into Prominence.
AMONG the many artists who are doing sincere and
worthy work this winter in New York City are Mrs.
Stella Hadden-Alexander and Miss Emma Elise West.
Mrs. Hadden-Alexander is a pianist who has gained
reputation abroad, and this has been greatly increased
since her return to America. Her power of interpreta-
tion is remarkable, while brilliancy of technique and
warmth of tone colour vitalize all her interpretations.
In sweep and power her strong passages are masculine
rather than feminine. The great charm of her playing
and that which distinguishes it from the work of most
women pianists, is its power to make the listener think.
Beneath her touch the piano become a living, talking per-
sonality. The character of the woman is felt in every
note — sympathetic, tender and intellectual. Whether she
brings us the old masters or the American composers who
have won their laurels, she never fails to reveal the musi-
cal idea in the clearest possible form.
Miss West has become known as a reader of original
New York society sketches and an interpreter of Robert
Browning, Rudyard Kipling and other rare minds. These
two lines of work, which differ so widely, are handled
PIANO PLAYING. 91
with rare skill by Miss West. She presents the thing it-
self with a simplicity and directness most refreshing.
Her sense of humour is keen and her perception is deli-
cate, without detracting from a certain passionate strength
which lends vividness to everything she does. She pos-
sesses that gift so common to American girls and so
uncommon to girls of any other nationality, namely, the
ability to grasp at once the essential points of a character
and really be for the time being the person represented.
Mrs. Alexander and Miss West have arranged several
programmes, in which they appear both alone and together.
Two of the most effective numbers are a dainty prose
poem by Eugene Field, which Mrs. Alexander accom-
panies with exquisite woodland music, and a thrilling scene
in the life of a famous violinist, the story of which is told
in words and tones.
These gifted women contemplate a professional tour in
the spring of 1899 throughout the West. Their pro-
grammes give peculiar intellectual pleasure to drawing-
room and club entertainments. They are favourites in
many homes of the choicest people in New York City.
Both are residents of New York City, Mrs. Alexander's
studio being at No. 7 West Sixty-fifth St., while Miss
West resides at No. 142 West One Hundred and Fifth St.
ANYING A3 AN ART.
Miss Isabel McCatfs School. Accompanists i.i Demand c.t
Excellent Remuneration. A Branri cf ill? Art
Which Is Too Much Neglected.
AN erroneous impression prevails in this country that
a musical career opens for women in the direction of two
92 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
avenues only, and that through these alone may she hope
to win fame and fortune, namely, the professions of singer
or instrumentalist, i. e., organist, violinist or pianist.
The latter has been naturally supposed to include the
middle ground of accompanying. No greater error can
be conceived. The art of accompanying is quite distinct
from either vocalism or the usual skill of a pianist. One
may be a Paderewski, a Rosenthal or a Fanny Bloomfield
Zeisler, and yet be unable to fill satisfactorily what might
to the uninitiated seem the subordinate position of an ac-
companist. A truly skilled vocalist, however, man or
woman, would readily and gracefully acknowledge his or
her dependence upon the one who fills this most responsi-
ble position. If more accompanists could feel this sense
of responsibility, and, while carefully refraining from
over-asserting themselves, make the singer realise their
valuable support, the art would be more readily and fully
recognised.
It is an astonishing fact that among the hundreds of
musicians whose advertisements are found in the musical
periodicals and in the daily papers, only two, or at the
most three, are professional accompanists. It was this
fact, as well as the extreme difficulty experienced in
obtaining proper substitutes in studio or concert work,
which inspired Miss Isabel McCall, an accomplished
musician, with the idea of founding a school of accompany-
ing in New York City, the first of its kind in this country.
Entered upon with fear and trembling, the experiment
has proved a success nevertheless, far exceeding the
fondest hopes of the originator. In less than eight
months the school has so far outgrown all expectations as
to require Miss McCall's removal to more spacious quar-
ters at No. 251 Fifth Avenue.
Miss McCall ranks among the finest accompanists in
PIANO PLAYING. 93
New York, and for the past ten years has filled positions
as studio accompanist for several of the foremost vocal
teachers in the metropolis, besides being in great demand
for concerts and musicals.
When one considers for a moment how many well-
taught pianists are forced almost to beg for pupils, at a
small remuneration, one can appreciate the necessity of
their adding to the skill already obtained that which is
required in a good accompanist. The demand for skillful
accompanists exceeds the supply ; and the remuneration
paid them is all that can be desired. The course at the
school of accompanying consists of twenty lessons, by
which one is fitted for studio work, where experience per-
fects by practice.
It must not be inferred, however, that any one who can
perform acceptably a few pieces upon the piano may, as a
matter of course, become an acceptable accompanist. By
no means. Delicacy of touch, a keen feeling for music,
and power of expression, as well as sight reading, are all
prerequisites for the student. To these qualifications add
perseverance and energy, rightly directed, and success is
assured.
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION.
SHE PLANS NEW BUILDINGS.
How a Girl May Learn To Be an Architect. — A Course in a
Good Technical School Needed, If One Has Hopes of
Eventually Doing Good Independent Work.
THE woman desirous of becoming a practical, bread-
winning architect can find no better, surer training than is
to be had in a good architectural school. When I first
became imbued with the idea of adopting architecture as
a profession, there was no school in New York where a
woman could study the art. The Young Women's Chris-
tian Association had an elementary course, which I fol-
lowed with profit. I believe it is still maintained, free, or
at a very nominal cost to the student. Two years later,
the New York School of Applied Design for Women
opened, and I applied for admission. So good was the
preliminary training that I had received in drawing and
design at the Young Women's Christian Association that
I passed the elementary examination and was admitted at
once to the architectural department, where I remained
two years, completing the most practical course under
the most competent instructors — practical architects.
The course has since been increased, until at present it
covers three years. The study of the historical ornament
as conducted at this school is invaluable. Knowledge of
historical ornament is to design what knowledge of archi-
tecture is to interior decoration. To make original designs
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 95
one must know what has been done throughout the ages.
This is impossible without systematic study of the arts of
various countries and periods, under enlightened direc-
tion. Now, the woman who enters an architect's office
without this training will be put to tracing, and if she
shows special aptitude her employer will keep her tracing
to the end of her days. Good tracers are not plentiful,
and when a firm secures one it is likely to cling to her, to
its own profit and the woman aspirant's detriment, so far
as professional advancement is concerned.
On the other hand, the woman who has completed a
course of training in a good school can scarcely do better
than to enter an architect's office. She will have to begin
at tracing, as does the woman who has had no scholastic
training. But she will work more intelligently. She
will have a background of knowledge that will make her
invaluable to a firm. She will have an opportunity to
assert her individuality, and if she is ambitious, tracing
will soon be left in the background, and she will find her-
self consulted and deferred to in the most important mat-
ters.
Time spent in a good school, I think, is time well spent.
Tuition at the New York school is $80 a year, or $240 for
the complete course. Board and lodging at reasonable
rates are to be had in the neighbourhood, while the city
affords inexhaustible opportunity for self-education.
Unlike students of design, there are few if any opportuni-
ties for the architectural student to earn money while
pursuing the course. There is an immense unworked
field for women in architecture, especially in the planning
of dwellings. No one is quicker to acknowledge the fact
than an intelligent man.
After a woman has secured technical training, there
is no better opening wedge to the money-making world
96 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
than to become identified in some way with a well-estab-
lished architectural firm. Soon after I finished my course
at school Miss Gannon, my present partner and class-
mate, and myself were employed in competitive work,
entered into by two well-known architects. As the latter
were employed during the day by one of the largest firms
in the city, the competitive work was left almost wholly
to us. So largely were our suggestions accepted and so
much of the work was practically ours that we decided
after three out of the five plans we had worked out were
awarded prizes, that instead of spending our time and
energy working for others without receiving outside credit
we would constitute ourselves a firm for independent
work.
This was four years ago. Since then the men for whom
we did the competitive work have formed a partnership,
and we continue to work with them, yet are independent
of them. We supplemented each other. There is much
that we could not do without them, and they often find us
invaluable. It is a most happy and profitable arrange-
ment, and it seems to me a generally desirable one for the
woman architect.
Our first work as partners was the planning of a sani-
tarium in San Francisco. One of the best-known physi-
cians of New York, who has a sanitarium in his own house,
said if ever he built an institution of that kind he wanted
it to be a fac-simile of the San Francisco building. A
cottage and two residences in Twilight Park followed,
but our great work, upon which we have expended more
than two years' study, is a model tenement-house, for
which ground was broken October i, in West Sixty-sev-
enth St.
How to erect two buildings, five stories high, each to
accommodate fifteen families, on a city lot 25 by 100 feet
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 97
was a problem not easy to solve. We spent two years in
preparatory work, work which women are prone to shirk
or overlook when they contemplate architecture as a
means of livelihood. We visited all the down-town tene-
ments. We studied every detail of existing conditions,
talked with the tenants, learned what were their objec-
tions and what they would suggest to promote better liv-
ing. The University Settlement men were of much assist-
ance in our study.
We competed for the Woman's Building at the Atlanta
Exhibition, but the award was made before our plans
arrived. Effort was made to reconsider the decision in
our behalf, but professional etiquette would not permit
us to consent to that. As individuals and as a firm, we
have had every possible assistance and encourage-
ment from brother architects. They often go out of
their way to lend a helping hand. In planning a dwell-
ing I have often observed that the cleverest architects
are given to sacrificing utility to harmony of design.
This is an error that I think few women would make.
Their familiarity with the requirements of a home makes
them exceedingly practical. I recall a discussion once at
school between an instructor and pupil & propos to a
cellarway. The girl protested that the stair was too
narrow for comfort or safety, and in her design she
enlarged it.
" But can't you see," said the instructor, " that in en-
larging the step you spoil the harmony of the design ? "
" Put a fat cook on the step as you would have it,"
replied the girl. " Then consider the harmony of the
cook."
As usual, the woman had the last word !
ALICE J. HANDS.
98 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
COMPENSATION OF ARCHITECTS.
AN architect receives, for designs and superintendence
of construction, 5 per cent, of the cost of a building, as a
rule. The rate varies from 2\ per cent, to 10, however,
with the size of the building or the alterations, whatever
they are.
The assistants of an architect are mainly draughtsmen,
who earn about $15 a week, the chief draughtsman get-
ting from $30 to $50, according to his value.
Beginners have sometimes paid an architect for the
privilege of learning the business in his office. There are
cases where $500 has been paid. After a time, the
learner is given a small salary, and the compensation
increases step by step with his abilities. This form of
apprenticeship is now dying out. Beginners are gener-
ally students from technical schools, or lawyers' clerks
who wish to earn a little money while studying law. The
latter earn from $6 to $10 a week.
The best skill in draughting is shown in perspective
work. This is not always done in an architect's office, as
there are artists who do this work by the piece. Another
branch of skilled work is the colouring of perspective
drawings, and this gives employment to a special few
artists, who receive a lump sum for each piece of work.
MAKING HOMES BEAUTIFUL.
Suggestions by One Who Has Found This a Money-Earning
Occupation. — Household Architecture and Decoration
Worthy of a Woman s Long and Patient Study. —
No Success Without Such Study.
THE present outlook for women in household architec-
ture and decoration is, I think, extremely good. Ameri-
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 99
cans are awakening to intelligent recognition of its
necessity and possibility. Women know as well as, if not
better than, men what a home requires to enhance its
comfort and its beauty.
The woman who aspires to be a professional interior
architect and decorator should have liberal education
and wide knowledge of the world. The latter is abso-
lutely essential, since the decorator must be able to ascer-
tain the taste, purse and social surroundings of her
clients in order properly to express their individuality ;
and this is impossible unless she has had her eyes opened
by travel and contact with the world's best art.
An erroneous impression prevails among both artists
and laymen that household decoration is confined to the
hanging of draperies, the upholstering of a divan and the
arrangement of silk pillows, etc. Unhappily, this super-
ficial understanding of the art leads not a few women
into the field, where, owing to the fact that they are wo-
men, they appeal to the sympathy of those who wish to
help them, and who — their knowledge of real artistic
work being equally limited — accept what is offered un-
questioningly, and pay well for the same.
Thorough and practical training in architecture is the
foundation of artistic household decoration. Without it
no woman or man — there is no sex in art — can hope to
become an intelligent artistic decorator. Architecture is
the first step preparatory to the study of interior decora-
tion. If a woman cannot begin by apprenticeship in an
architect's office, let her enter a school strong in that
branch of art. Reading and observation must supple-
ment this technical training.
The literature of art is not taught in this country.
There are a few artists who have studied abroad, had
their attention roused, and finally taken up a systematic
ioo WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
course of reading. I have often wished that some one
would awaken our art schools and teachers to this
lamentable defect in the student's curriculum. Our
museums and libraries are well stocked in the best art
literature. Nowhere in this country can a student study
to better advantage or at less expense than in New York.
Feeling for colour is of paramount importance. It is
born, and cannot be attained, save in a limited degree.
The decorator must know not only the artistic but the
commercial value of every kind of material involved in an
interior decoration. Details of the cost of wall paper,
materials for wall hangings and draperies and the amount
possibilities of change in designs, colours or style must be
at her command. Of course textile fabrics in design,
colour and texture vary every year ; still, there are certain
defined principles that underlie the whole.
The household decorator must be a mathematician.
Close calculation as well as knowledge of weights and
measures enter largely into the work. Executive ability
and common-sense are also essential supplements to
artistic sense and technical training.
I was once asked by a young woman of no little taste
and talent if I did not think that she could do as good
work as I and make lots of money.
" If you are willing to enter an architect's office and
work eight hours a day for a couple of years I think you
might succeed," I replied. A cry of protest met the
proposition.
" I never could do such a stupid thing and waste so
much time. Work eight hours a day ! Impossible ! "
The decorator must not only work eight hours a day,
but every moment, in thought or deed, if she has her art
at heart. I find that the stumbling-block to women is
their unwillingness to go to the bottom of things. They
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 101
shrink from paying the price of hard study. They look
only to the high lights, the finished picture. The master-
ing of the decorator's art is in a way an anti-climax.
Success requires knowledge of the various trades that
go to the erection of a house. It is absolutely necessary
to keep up to date in plumbing, lighting, electricity and
heating. Heating and lighting are now most important
subjects. The decorator should know everything per-
taining to the construction of a dwelling-house from
cellar, laundry and kitchen to bath-room and attic ; the
varieties of woods used for floors, their durability and
price ; likewise the varieties and prices of marbles ;
whether marble, tile or stone is more adaptable or cheaper
for a certain purpose. All these apparently prosaic de-
tails play no small part in the utility of the decorator.
The more of this commercial information she possesses the
better she is able to control workmen and serve her client.
When it comes to selection of fabrics and furniture the
decorator must know the latest designs, their durability
or desirability, cost and quantity required, so that close
estimates can be made and satisfactory results attained.
Make yourself familiar with the quality, design and price
of every material that enters into the interior decoration
of *a house and ascertain at what stores they are to be
had. Educate yourself in these important matters. New
York is full of rich and curious shops. The merchants
are always ready to give information, particularly when
they learn that the inquisitor is a student, earnest and
intelligent.
There are fine marble yards, where workmen will ex-
plain the differences in marbles. Suppose a man is unde-
cided whether to have a marble or stone mantelpiece in
his drawing-room. The decorator should be able to tell
which material is the more desirable for that particular
102 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
house or room. Some marbles and woods are softer than
others, and yield more readily to carvings. Now, women
rarely know these things ; never study them, and do not
deem it essential.
House decoration is largely a side issue to me, but one
that I enjoy immensely. Few in this country, owing to
general ignorance of the history of art, realise how largely
art has always entered into the industries of the world.
If this fact was better understood by students who come
here to study, struggle, starve or despair, in the effort to
paint a picture to be hung on the line, there would be
fewer poor artists and more good artisans.
You must be proud of your work and dignify the small-
est detail of it, if you hope to succeed. Shortly after the
unveiling of my window in Grace Church, one of the
workmen noticed a couple of young girls who bore the
earmarks of art students studying the design with appar-
ent enthusiasm.
" You paint on glass ? " he asked.
" Oh, no," they replied in an injured tone ; " we are
artists."
While assisting Mr. La Farge in the decoration of Cor-
nelius Vanderbilt's house I tried to help along two strug-
gling art students by employing them to work on some of
the tapestries, a branch of art that invited the serious
study of the old masters. They came to and from the
studio in a stealthy manner, as if ashamed of being identi-
fied with the work. Their ideal, from their standpoint,
was infinitely higher. Vain to tell them that Raphael and
Michael Angelo had expended some of their most precious
time and genius on tapestries that are still the delight of
the world. Subsequently one of the girls married, and
when I met her at a reception with her husband she asked
me never to mention to him that she had ever worked in
my studio at tapestry embroidering !
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 103
I never trust the mixing of paints to my employees. I
see to every colour and medium that goes on to the palette.
The decorator must know the different ingredients of pig-
ments. When I was decorating the Savoy Hotel I had
more than sixty men under my supervision, and I have
just completed a private residence a't Madison, N. J.,
practically reconstructing the entire house ; supervising
electric bells, electric lighting and designing plumbing
fixtures — in fact, everything that underlies and precedes
the purely decorative, as well as painting and the final
finished decorations.
Household architecture and decoration are not only
interesting throughout, but pay well ; pay better than
exterior architectural work. Remuneration is to be had
by commission and contract. I work on both bases. I
never take a vacation in the accepted sense. Change of
scene in pursuit of new things that will broaden and en-
rich my work is all the vacation I wish or require. It is
impossible for me to tell a woman in detail how to become
a decorator, or how I have learned the art. Given nat-
ural taste and desire, with determination to go to the
foundation, to pay the price of knowledge in drudgery
that is never apparent, there is no reason why women
should not occupy largely this practically unworked field,
which increased wealth and liberal education are dailv
broadening throughout the country.
MARY TILLINGHAST.
FASCINATING AS AN ART.
Women May Study Wood-Carving and Find It Profitable —
American Woods Are Plastic to the Worker s Tools.
Orange as Smooth as Kid and Holly Excellent.
MRS. G. T. DRENNAN, in an article on "Wood-Carving
ro4 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
for Women," written for American Homes, says that, though
not a practical worker herself in this art, its beauty and
desirability for feminine hands have forcibly impressed
themselves upon her, and she adds as follows :
" Wood-carving is a fascinating branch of art, and an
industry not by any means beyond the capacity of women.
It is artistic, useful and highly remunerative, embodying
the always desirable elements in any industry for interest-
ing the mind, occupying the hands and replenishing the
purse. It is also undoubtedly one of the first and fore-
most industrial arts of the day.
"Woods differ in quality, some better adapted to one
branch, some to another. American sylva is as rich as
any in the world, and for all artistic handicraft and wood-
carving there are woods as beautiful and plastic to the
carver's tools as the marble to the sculptor's chisel.
Tupelo, gum, maple, cherry, orange, holly, walnut and
cedar are elegant in "grain and finish. Maple is well
adapted to staining in imitations of choice originals, as it
possesses a fine grain. Orange wood is as smooth as
French kid, and of an exquisite ivory tint. It is con-
sidered better than the English limewood, as the latter is
subject to the attack of worms, which destroy its beauty.
" The red cedar of our forests is one of the finest woods
for carving ; its natural colour is bright and its durability
great. The finest cedars in the world are /ound in the
Southern States, and immense factories are employed in
cutting cedar stock for lead-pencils \ to the ingenious
wood-carver the smallest branches are suitable.
"When the discovery of ebony first took place in France
(or rather re-discovery), it created such a furour in the
artistic world that the art of furniture-making was styled
'ebenisterie,' whence the term came to be generally used.
Etony had been known to the ancients, as their gods and
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 105
statues were carved therefrom. Its metal-like hardness
required certain kinds of tools for its cutting, and the
jet-black surface offers a background for the most beauti-
ful and intricate inlaying of all kinds of brilliant mate-
rials. The famous boule-work of the French is of ebony,
inlaid with mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell and overlaid
with bronze. It received its name from the artist, Andre
Charles Boule, who was the most skilful cabinet-maker
of the time of Louis XIV, and whose masterpieces of in-
laid ebony are still preserved as the rarest art treasures.
There frequently occur variations in the blackness of
ebony. It is sometimes streaked with dull red, like old
port wine, and again of a deep purple tint.
" Holly native to our Middle and Southern States is
ivory white, firm, smooth and beautifully veined. It now
rivals the once exclusive rosewood for piano casings.
Books are bound in holly, and for parasol and umbrella
handles it rivals the partridge wood of Brazil. Book
covers and pianos are of the holly in its natural cream or
ivory hue, polished or varnished. Carved holly wood is
most beautiful for work-boxes, writing-desks, match-safes
and such purposes.
" Rosewood is sold by weight, as it is extremely resin-
ous, and upon the quality of resin depends the richness of
its colour and its value. Some of the most beautiful speci-
mens of old-fashioned furniture in the world are of carved
rosewood.
"The Princess of Wales, in the industrial school of
Sandringham, which she established and sustains, gives
special prominence to wood-carving. Specimens of the
work from the hands of the maidens under tutelage fre-
quently command high prices, and are exhibited as fine
works of art. The use of burnt wood in decoration, an
art which dates from mediaeval times, is having its renas-
io6 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
cence in this country. It bids fair to become an import-
ant factor in the artistic finish of our buildings, public
and private. Authorities say that dry woods, free from
gummy or resinous parts, are the only suitable kinds. The
white or yellow poplar of the United States is said to be
well suited for burnt-wood designs. Fine results are ob-
tained by combining harder, darker woods, such as oak or
walnut, that impart rich, dark tones in contrast with the
lighter poplar."
GROWING FIELDS OF WORK.
FIGURES are cry reading to most people. There is
probably no objection to saying that women are interested
in them, on the whole, the least of anybody. But here
are a few figures about themselves which show a very in-
teresting tendency of the times in which we live. They
should be printed somewhere in this work, and might as
well be given here as elsewhere.
In 1870, that is to say nearly thirty years ago, of all the
women employed in America in the struggle for a living,
not quite 8 per cent, were enrolled in what may be called
the proprietor classes, such as farmers, merchants, bank-
ers and professional people. What the exact proportion
is now cannot be told until the census of 1900 is taken.
But in 1890 they constituted over 16 per cent, of all the
women at work, showing how materially that particular
class is increasing.
The clerical class (bookkeepers, clerks, agents, sales-
women, etc.,) amounted to less than i per cent, of the
total of women employed in 1870, but in 1890 it had
grown to about 5 per cent. There is little doubt that it
has grown more largely yet in these last nine years.
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 107
Among skilled workers in the great variety of indus-
tries in this country the women made in 1870 and yet
make a strong showing. In the year first named 20 per
cent, of all the women employed were skilled workers in
the industries ; in 1890 a trifle less than 27 percent. The
actual number of persons in this line had increased, but
not as rapidly as in the two foregoing classes.
Household servants and other workers who, for lack of
a better name, must be described as belonging to the
labouring class, had actually decreased from about 72 per
cent, of the whole in 1870 to 52 per cent, in 1890. There
were more labouring women employed, but the number
in the other classes grew so phenomenally that the pro-
portion of women labourers was very much less. This is
an interesting circumstance.
A BEAUX-ARTS FOR WOMEN.
First in the World. — An Atelier in New York Especially
for Women, Which Supplies Them with Admirable
Facilities.
WOMEN of serious architectural aspiration may well
rejoice. Significant recognition of their adaptability to
the study of architecture and the practical application of
its principles to interior decoration is the recent opening
of the Masqueray atelier, in New York City.
New York witnesses in this unique institution the first
Beaux-Arts founded for women in the world's history.
The course of architecture followed at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, at Paris, is unsurpassed. There students are
grouped under professors selected by themselves, and all
work together for the common good. By friendly criti-
io8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
cism each helps the other, and so artistic is the atmosphere
created that study is a pleasure. The Masqueray atelier
is a practical fac-simile of the famous school founded by
Louis XIV.
About ten years ago Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, a
young Frenchman, pupil of Leon Ginain, member of the
Institute and professor of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, came
to this country at the solicitation of American students
whom he had met in Paris. His struggles were those
inseparable from the experience of a foreigner steeped in
the art traning and traditions of the Old World, and igno-
rant of the English language, who finds himself suddenly
placed in an environment suffering the first throes of art-
birth. The gifted young Parisian, however, was not slow
to assimilate the American spirit. He soon noted that
the architectural offices of the metropolis of the New
World were filled with clever, industrious youths, to whom
opportunity for serious study was denied. The more he
pondered on the situation, the deeper grew the conviction
that the training of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was not
impossible to Americans who preferred to remain at home.
The time was ripe and the man equipped to found such an
institution on virgin soil.
Masqueray had reaped honours at his Alma Mater, shared
the bounty of the Institute of France in Italy, and won the
title of Designer of the Commission of Historic Monu-
ments, and the gold medal of the Salon ; and in 1892 he
opened an atelier at No. 123 East Twenty-third St., in
New York City. The story of the atelier's tentative days
is not unlike that recorded of the famous Julien. Six
months' waiting brought one student ! Slowly but surely
the numbers grew, until to-day representatives of every
State may be found at the Masqueray atelier. The enter-
prise has now more than fulfilled the hopes of its founder,
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION. 109
and earned the indorsement of the most eminent men in
the architectural profession.
The course of study is identical with that pursued at
Paris. Students have access to the studio day and night.
Problems are assigned, and twice a week Masqueray visits
the atelier and gives each student his personal criticism.
Competitions are frequent, and a healthy spirit of rivalry
prevails. Each year the standard is higher.
" En loge " will eventually become as picturesque and
serious a feature of the Masqueray as it has been for more
than a century at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Students
have the advantage of receiving criticism in their native
tongue, as Masqueray has acquired English. A born
teacher, he brings to the aid of his students the enthusi-
asm of a Frenchman grounded in the art of the best
schools. And be it especially noted that he has unbounded
faith in women's ability to succeed in architecture, particu-
larly as applied to interior decoration, provided they go
about it seriously.
" Never have I seen/' says Masqueray, " women begin
the study of architecture as does the painter or the sculp-
tor, who spends years in serious study to acquire thorough
knowledge of the best principles of his art. Women are
generally content to draw a little ; then after a few
months in an architect's office, where they learn something
of plumbing, building laws and other less important office
work, they are ready for an architectural career ! Of
architecture and composition they are ignorant. The result
is necessarily amateurish, and is dubbed ' woman's work '
by the critics, who do not seem to realise that any man of
like training would do just as bad work."
Demand for artistic interiors is constantly growing in
the United States. Masqueray foresees that now is
woman's opportunity to prepare to meet that demand. It
no WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
is in response to repeated applications from women for
admission to the Twenty-third St. institution that Masque-
ray has decided to open at No. 37-40 West Twenty-second
St. an atelier for their exclusive use.
Students will follow as nearly as possible the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts course, beginning with the study of Greek and
Roman orders and passing through all the periods of the
Renaissance down to modern architectural problems.
The course is intended particularly for students of interior
decoration. A thorough knowledge of architectural design
is an indispensable basis for good work in decorative com-
position. Interior decoration in all the historical styles
will be a feature of the course, and the subject of thor-
ough study, so that students will be able to design a room
in any style, including furniture, stained glass, etc. The
work will thus be harmonious, the output of one mind,
instead of, as is often seen, a patchwork of divers contribu-
tion.
When shown the work of two women who had scarcely
been a week in the studio, the mother of the master
exclaimed : " Why, it's superior to that of the men students
of as many months' study ! "
" True," says Masqueray. " They are serious women.
They do serious work, and I have great expectations."
The spacious women's atelier is in a building replete
with studios, and when earnest women throughout the
country learn that the training of the Paris Beaux-Arts
may be had there at a nominal cost its capacity will doubt-
less be over-taxed. Circulars giving course of studies
and terms may be had on application.
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE.
DIGNITY OF THE GOOD COOK.
How This Art Attracts Girls. — Thousands Attend Cooking
and Training Schools. — Why the Mistress of a Home
Must Know How To Do Things.
HE can live without friends, he can live without books,
But civilised man cannot live without cooks,
wrote "Owen Meredith," fifty years ago, and Lytton
doubtless believed that the profession of the culinary
artist was an honourable one. Not so the world at large,
however. A cook, until within most recent times, was
held in small esteem unless he — it was always a he in that
case — had become sufficiently famous to be considered
worthy of the title of chef. When this potentate had
tickled the palates of other men — for in questions of taste
even in gastronomy women's opinions were counted not
at all — so that they responded in a real Oliver Twist man-
ner, he had scored for himself so high a mark that it
must needs draw attention to his individuality.
Now every one is learning to cook, and there are
queens of the kitchen who may be queens elsewhere if
they will, royalty itself not disdaining to " make an
omelet in a minute, a most simple thing, ma chere."
Society young women, especially when they are about to
be married, take up this branch of learning with avidity ;
young men take it up that they may be able to camp out
and go on long journeys into places where cooking is
unknown ; trained nurses become cooks that they may
ii2 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
make their patients more comfortable. City and foreign
missionaries study the art, not only to utilize it in their
own economical homes, but in order to improve the home
living of those for whom they work. Cooks in private
families are constantly obliged to add to their knowledge,
to keep abreast of the progress in this department.
Chefs at hotels and restaurants are having the same
struggle, while the waitress, seeing the cook waited upon
and receiving higher wages than herself, uses her own
earnings for cooking lessons, that she, too, may take a
cook's position.
Thus the profession of cooking — if one may so desig-
nate this calling — offers a great field for those desirous of
being able to demand always a good place and one that is
more than ordinarily independent. The better the cook
the larger the salary she is able to demand. Every hour
of time, every dollar spent in gaining a thorough knowl-
edge and skill in cookery tells. Good cooks are needed
everywhere. In private families the comfort and health
of the household depend upon them. Success in political
and social clubs rests much upon the character and
management of the cook or chef in the culinary depart-
ment. Hospitals and hotels, restaurants and dairies are
completely dependent for their success on the excellence
of the cuisine. Indeed, the list of opportunities where
people capable of faultless cooking can earn a good living
and be valued and respected in their profession is too
long to enumerate.
It takes thought and judgment to cook, and if one is
in search of a deeply moral motive as an excuse for pur-
suing the work, why not consider the happiness which is
immediately dependent upon the health of those for whom
the cooking is done?
There is a growing demand for thoroughly educated
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 113
teachers in cooking. Persons who have had experience
in the preparation of foods and understand the manage-
ment of range fires and ovens, and whose tastes incline
them in this direction, ought to be fitted in one season to
teach classes of children or adults, if they have teachers'
qualifications — that is, the power of imparting what they
know.
Every student will not make a good teacher, for" teach-
ers are born, not made." Yet cooking lessons received
have often been utilized by the pupils in other ways than
along the lines of instructors. For instance, one woman,
after taking a course in cookery, found a place as super-
intendent in a charitable institution, where she plans and
often assists in the preparation of meals ; another is a
housekeeper in a girls' boarding-school, where healthful
food and ceremony in serving it are expected ; another is
a caterer, with dated appointments for luncheons and
dinners at different houses. One teacher in the South is
occupied the entire summer in making fancy dishes of
lobster and crab for a fashionable hotel. Another sup-
ports herself by filling orders for salads and special dishes.
These instances may give suggestions to cooking teach-
ers whose regular classes will probably occupy but part of
the year. Summer schools are becoming interested in
this branch, and are introducing it as one of the special
attractions.
When it is realised that twenty-five years ago manual
training had not been adopted in any of the schools in
this country — which is supposedly in advance of every
other land in matters of education — it is not surprising
that cookery should have been so late in coming to the
fore.
Last year thirty-five hundred pupils received instruc-
tion in this branch in the city of Boston. The South Ken-
ii4 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
sington National Training School of Cookery, in London,
was opened in 1873, and there are now one hundred and
sixty schools where cooking is taught, and ninety-six
places where laundry work may be learned.
In the training school in which teachers are educated
they should not only study and work, but should have
constant opportunity for practice by teaching free classes
of children, thus gaining experience, which is an important
factor in their education.
The New York Cooking School is a training school of
this character, where every year from October to May
this sort of teaching is done. Its beautiful rooms at the
top of the United Charities Building are class-rooms only,
with no facilities for boarding students. Fifty dollars
covers the tuition of the season.
After a student has received her diploma, no employ-
ment is promised, but constant opportunities are occurring
where a good teacher would find ample support. On the
present staff the teachers receive $2 for day lessons and
$2.50 for evening lessons in plain cooking. Teachers of
more elaborate cooking have larger pay. Public demon-
strators make their own terms.
Intelligence and education are of as great an advantage
in fitting a woman to be a qualified teacher in cooking as
in any profession she may adopt.
EMILY HUNTINGTON.
HOUSEKEEPING A SCIENCE.
Some Virtues Which Must Be Attained. — // Is Not Necessary
to Know How to Do Everything, But Equable Temper y
Tact and System Are Indispensable.
HOUSEKEEPING is a science. It has the investment of
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 115
far more money than any half-dozen of the pursuits of
men concerning which books are published, public discus-
sions are held and great parties are formed.
The Treasury of the United States handles vast sums,
and the recital of its figures staggers the comprehension
of any but trained financiers. Yet its utmost in receipts
and expenditures would prove only a petty and an incon-
siderable item when compared with the annual output of
those little-considered sisters of mine — the housekeepers
of America — and I am forced to confess, to my own con-
fusion, that all the extravagance and criminal waste in all
the National departments from that memorable Fourth
of July when our sires put their names to the Declaration
of Independence down to this present day would not
begin to equal in amount the waste and extravagance for
which those same sisters of mine should be held responsi-
ble within the current twelvemonth.
For almost every man who is a worker there is a woman
— some woman, wife, mother, sister or only landlady —
whose hand is held open for him on Saturday night, or at
the end of the month, or the quarter, or whenever the
fruits of his toil are gathered, and to whose care he gives
up all but the little he needs to jingle in his pouch and
keep the ghosts away. This woman is the housekeeper,
and upon her discretion and ability and thrift depend not
only that man's creature comforts, but, to a great extent,
his success in life.
Having thus dignified the name of housekeeper by
showing that she is the principal disbursing agent for the
wages of man, it is now in order to classify the various
grades of this profession, from the wife of the labourer,
living in a two-room cottage or a three-room tenement,
up innumerable flights of dark, rickety, dirty stairs, to
the smart, alert woman of affairs who manages the estab-
n6 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
lishment of a millionaire, whether she be the titular mis-
tress of the house or a paid employee.
Among those who, for want of a better word, may be
called the lower classes, it is generally understood that a
thrifty, busy wife makes of her husband a thrifty and,
within bounds, a successful man, unless, indeed, he be
one of those good-for-naughts whom nothing can redeem.
A step higher in the social scale, although by no means
so long a step as she likes to think it, is the woman whose
means are such that she is enabled to employ a maid-of-
all-work, a " hired girl," I believe, is the accepted term.
In this class are to be found the two extremes — the best
housekeepers and the worst.
When a woman attains to the dignity of employing a
hired girl it makes or mars her. If she keeps her hand
on the helm, if she continues to do a part of the work
herself and to personally supervise that which she does
not do, the results are likely to be most satisfactory. If,
on the other hand, the great bulk of the work is dumped
upon the hapless "slavey," while the mistress confines
her exertions to scoldings and fault-finding, then has the
white-robed angel of peace left that house, and the sooner
the fagged-out husband and neglected children can follow
the angel, the shorter will be their sufferings.
An establishment in which four to six servants are
maintained is likely to tax the good housekeeper's abilities
to the utmost, for the reason that people in that class of
life are quite as critical in their tastes, as exacting in their
needs, as those more favoured ones who are able to main-
tain a complete and well-ordered equipment of trained
domestics. While yet the bottom of the household purse
is much nearer to the top than is quite comfortable, ex-
penses must be kept down, while appearances must be
kept up, and milord will be testy (and show it, too) if his
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 117
roast is not so prime cut or his wine not so sound a vin-
tage as that of his neighbour, Sir Gorgius Midas, with
whom he dined recently.
I am frequently called upon, in my business capacity, to
furnish housekeepers to grand establishments, and I am
as often struck with the absence of that practical knowl-
edge, training and aptitude for controlling servants which
my applicants exhibit.
It is not essential that a housekeeper should herself
know how to cook in order to spread a good table, nor
need she be able to clear starch nor to clean silver in
order to direct competent servants in these matters. The
first and greatest requisites in a housekeeper are system
and method. Equipped with these and a tolerably equable
temper, she is prepared to face an army of servants and
to bring order out of chaos.
By system and method I do not mean the wretched
cut-and-dried precision with which some housekeepers (I
regret to say they, with some show of truth, call them-
selves " old-fashioned ") make their homes wretched and
forbidding alike to their man-servant, their maid-servant
and to the stranger that is within their gates.
I can recall some houses in which it has been my hard
lot to find myself a sojourner, wherein, should one so
much as walk through a drawing-room, the hostess could
detect the fact as readily and as unerringly as the red
Indian could detect the trail of a settler passing through
the forest. A book on the side table, which for countless
years had laid with its title up and its length northeast by
southwest, may be now headed north-northeast by south-
southwest.
The parlour-maid could never have been guilty of such
carelessness. For all those countless years of her colour-
less and wretched existence, each morning she has care-
u8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
fully lifted and dusted that same book and replaced it in
mathematically the same position. Evidently strangers,
vandals, perhaps, have been about And there's that sofa
cushion nearly two inches out of place. " Mary ! Mary !
Do come and put this room into some sort of order again/'
Such housekeepers as that should be relegated to the
same bourne as the self-martyred flagellants and the
wearers of horsehair shirts. Perhaps they may derive
some morbid enjoyment from their miseries, but they
render unhappy all with whom they come in contact.
Finally, to such of my sisters as may think of taking up
the profession of housekeeping for the money there is in
it, I would say that to succeed they must first of all be
fitted for the task, either by nature or by a long and hard
tussel with the stern realities of life, which will divest
them of all those romantic ideas of the maintenance of
their own starched and frilled notions of dignity and
equality.
When a woman, be she of gentle birth or otherwise,
takes a position as the manager of a household, she may
or she may not be better than her employees in her own
estimation, but the less thought she devotes to such sub-
jects the better for herself and her household.
The young man who succeeds in obtaining a place in
some great mercantile or banking house rarely notices,
much less complains, if by chance it happens that his em-
ployer is at times brusque, cross, even unreasonable. He
hardly thinks of throwing up his job because the porter
is impudent or the chief clerk scolds him beyond his
deserts. Yet I have had some of my gentle-born house-
keepers come back to me with tears in their eyes and in-
dignation in their voices to complain that some petty
: light has been put upon them by the lady of the house,
or the butler has been surly and insolent. These women
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 119
think they are in earnest, yet they would, if unadvised,
throw up in a pet all that stands between them and misery,
perhaps even starvation.
I have but little patience with such, and yet I cannot
but think that what they lack is only the " heredity "
which has made in their brothers the toughened fibre to
resist and overcome such petty attacks.
Thorough earnestness of purpose, complete self-con-
trol, unerring tact — the more nearly a woman can attain
to these three almost unattainable virtues the nearer
will she be to the perfect and successful housekeeper.
ELIZABETH W. STEVENS.
Bureau of Social Requirements.
KEEPING BOARDERS AN ART.
An Occupation That Women Usually Scorn. — // May Be Suc-
cessful under Good Management. — Men the Best Caterers
and Housekeepers.
KEEPING boarders is an occupation usually overlooked
in the lists of desirable occupations for women. Perhaps
the oversight is due in a measure to the prevalence of the
woesome type of boarding-mistress, who is forever im-
pressing upon the wayfarers within her gates the sadness
of her lot at present, compared with those halcyon days
before she fell to keeping boarders.
When evil times fall upon a household, about the first
thing the old-fashioned woman thought of doing to keep
the wolf from the door was to take boarders, regardless
of any qualifications or disqualifications for the occupa-
tion. But just as there is the new journalism and the old
120 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
journalism, the new woman and the old woman, so there
seems to be an old type of boarding-house and a new.
More and more people are taking to a sort of boarding-
house life, and the boarder is no longer looked upon as a
bird of passage or a person to be pitied because he can't
afford a home. It seems to be a sort of adaptation to
the home life of the principle of big industries. People
have discovered that it is not simply cooking and dust-
ing and mending that make a home. There are women
who take to housekeeping like ducks to water, and there
are others who don't. The latter are likely to do other
work so much better that they prefer to do it, and leave
the housekeeping and cooking to those who can do it
best.
The development of this co-operative idea has pro-
duced several new types of boarding-house. The most
interesting, perhaps, because the one which is likely to go
on developing, is the big apartment-house, where individ-
uals have their own suites of rooms and their own furni-
ture, cared for by the servants of the house, by them-
selves, or by maids who come in from outside each
day, and where all dine in a common dining-room.
Another type is the family hotel, with its furnished suites
and rooms, its common parlour, billiard parlours, smoking-
room and other adjuncts ; and there is the still newer
type, the apartments, which have their separate dining-
rooms, in which meals are served from the common
kitchen.
So it seems a great mistake for the new old woman, or,
rather, the young woman with the new education, and
some old-fashioned notions of propriety, who is looking
about for opportunities for obtaining a comfortable
livelihood, to overlook the regenerated trade of keeping
boarders—particularly as the successful managers of
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 121
these new types of boarding-houses are usually mere
men. It's bad enough to find that the most prosperous
milliners and dressmakers and cooks are men, but to
have a man as a boarding-house keeper seems going alto-
gether too far for the spirit of the up-to-date business
woman.
Perhaps the most discouraging feature of the board-
house business to the novice is the fact that considerable
capital is required. You must have your house
thoroughly equipped, to begin with. Prospective
boarders are not going to risk your getting things after
they've taken your apartments, and you must be able to
wait. It may be months before you get your house filled,
and months more before you get just the sort of folks
you want. I wouldn't advise any woman, no matter how
great her predilection for housekeeping, to set up in the
boarding-house business unless she has a houseful of fur-
niture paid for, and money enough to pay her rent for
four or five months, at least.
Buying out an established place has its advantages and
its disadvantages. The boarders may be friends of the
former proprietor, accustomed to her ways, and they may
resent changes and leave. In buying out a place it is
not wise to pay cash down. It's a nuisance having to
make monthly payments, but it's better than to discover
that the apparent boarders are merely hangers-on, given
room in order to make an impression on the prospective
buyer. Claims on the furniture may crop up, too, unless
proper precautions are taken. I don't know but that the
best way, if you have from $400 to $1,000, is to take a house
in the best locality you can get, fit it up, and advertise
among your friends and acquaintances, at the bureaus
which direct people to boarding-places and in the news-
papers. It is better to pay $5 or $10 more a month, and get
122 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
a house with all the improvements at the start. If one has
to buy furniture, good second-hand articles, which may
be picked up cheaply at the auction shops if one is a dis-
creet buyer and knows when to stop bidding, are much
better than cheap new stuff, or buying on the instalment
plan. Credit accounts are things which will eat up the
biggest profits possible to the boarding-house keeper.
You must pay cash, and buy at wholesale, whenever pos-
sible— no quarts of apples or dozens of oranges. You
must go to the market and buy your vegetables by the
barrel or bushel. Another thing to be remembered is
that grocers and butchers always give a discount for
cash to boarding-houses.
If a woman is a good manager and knows how to buy
good food at low rates, table board pays better than rent-
ing rooms. The profits on each table boarder are prob-
ably small, not more than a dollar or two a week. The
money-making depends on having a large number.
The woman who is really determined to make a success-
ful business of it mustn't be afraid to advertise. But she
should not let the advertising take the form of a white
slip on the doorjamb, or a big yellow sign.
In choosing a house great attention must be paid to
location. If men are to be largely counted on, conve-
nience to elevated railroad stations and proximity to clubs
must be considered. If family boarders are chiefly de-
sired, a more fashionable part of the city should be
selected, and yet this, too, cannot be remote from lines of
cars. The neighbourhood must be good ; a public school
or orphan asylum or livery stable near at hand would
ruin the most desirable house. While people wish to be
in the midst of everything — convenient to every point of
interest — they want a quiet street, and especially a quiet
house.
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 123
No housekeeper can afford to allow any boarder to be
excessively noisy or disagreeable in behaviour.
Although it is perilous to start a boarding-house on
small capital and to buy furniture on credit, the thing has
been done successfully. Some years ago three women,
a mother and two daughters, came to 'New York from a
country place with less than one hundred dollars. They
proposed to start a boarding-house. They found a house
in one of the Thirties, convenient to clubs and cars, and
which the owner was willing to let them have on a ven-
ture, the rent to be paid at the end of the month. With
$20 of their small capital they bought, on the instalment
plan, as much furniture as they could get, and fitted up
part of the house. They were fortunate in letting one
room almost immediately, then another and another.
Meantime they took small sums of the money coming in
— keeping enough for current expenses — and bought at
auction pieces of furniture that would be too expensive
for them to afford if bought new. In this way all the rooms
were gradually furnished, and contained attractive things.
One servant was kept at first, and that one a young
girl able only to wait on the door and the table. But the
neighbourhood was so desirable and the table was so good
that the house speedily filled up, and more help was
needed. One of the young women would look at the
papers every morning and answer the advertisements ;
another attended to the house, and the mother to the
marketing and cooking.
Of course they had phenomenal luck, and it would be
unsafe to follow their example and start with so little
capital ; but this shows what has been done. In three
years these women had three houses furnished and free of
debt, and were practically running a private hotel.
There is a family in this city now that pays $3,000 a
124 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
year for a house. There are five persons to get a living
out of it. The house brings in about $10,000 a year,
which nets a small balance and keeps a nice home for the
whole family.
As to the cost of furnishing a house outright, it can be
done for about $150 a room for the large rooms and half
that for the small ones. But this sum will not supply the
dainty " fixings " that make a place look homelike and
attractive. It is true that boarders almost invariably
have their own "fixings," and prefer to put them out, dis-
carding those they find in the rooms, but the rooms must
have the look of being lived in, the " invitingness " that
attracts, or no one wants them.
Of course the life of a boarding-house keeper isn't
always pleasant, but I can't see that it is half as un-
pleasant as having to spend six or eight hours in an office,
and put up with the moods of an employer, as my friend
did before a little legacy enabled her to set up house-
keeping on a large scale. One needs, moreover, a great
deal of tact and a certain amount of philosophy. A big
bump of Irish humour is a great help. When you begin,
set up a few rules for yourself. The first one should be :
Don't expect gratitude ; be satisfied with cash, if you can't
prefer it. Another : Don't make bosom friends and con-
fidants rof your boarders. Don't tell the boarders how
you've come down in the world. Don't let any one be
familiar, and don't listen to gossip. Be kindly, cheerful,
tactful always.
No doubt boarding-house keepers have failed much as
Franklin did in his efforts to live up to a set of virtues.
But I don't see any reason why women shouldn't make a
business venture of boarding-house keeping, and make a
big success of it, too. It is just a trifle humiliating to me
always when I hear so much about women's progress in
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 125
medicine and law and the Lord knows what all, to observe
that the most prosperous milliners and dressmakers and
housekeepers are men. It's a fact ; men manage all those
big-dividend-paying family hotels and apartment-houses.
MARY E. J. KELLEY.
DOMESTIC SCIENCE.
An Old Idea in Glorified Modern Form. — Household Manage-
ment and Its Various Arts Now Reduced to a Scien-
tific Basis.— A Lively Demand for Thoroughly
Competent Instructors.
AMONG the numerous fields of labour for women none
have awakened a more widespread interest or are of
greater importance to the health and welfare of the family
and the nation than that of domestic science — the science
of household management.
It is not strictly a new field, for women have always
been workers in the home, and have always managed
their own or the homes of other people. In fact, home
has been regarded as " woman's sphere," and the know-
ledge of how to manage it has been generally acquired by
a sort .of apprenticeship under the maternal guidance,
beginning often in childhood.
In many instances domestic work has been looked upon
merely as drudgery — mechanical, unattractive labour — to
be gotten out of the way in the shortest possible time.
Little thought has been given to its effect upon the
household, so long as there has been plenty to eat, drink
and wear and the house was neat and comfortable.
Wherein does the new development of woman's work
in the home differ from that of the old ?
i26 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Formerly the work of the home was merely a routine
of daily duties, varied in kind and degree by the season,
the number in the family and the style of living. Women
were supposed not to know much about heating, ventila-
tion, plumbing or sanitary arrangements. These came
within the province of the masculine minds. From a
business point of view, the housework and sewing were
the woman's part in providing a home ; and, if she had
her board and clothing, no other compensation was ex-
pected. But if she worked for other than her own people,
she was paid wages.
The knowledge gained by the experience of one family
was shared freely with neighbours ; recipes were ex-
changed ; methods compared, and no one thought either of
being paid for imparting her knowledge or paying to
acquire more. There was no money value put upon a
woman's knowledge of household management, except as
she worked out that knowledge by actual service for others.
With the development of scientific discovery, the appli-
cation of new principles in improved machinery, with
discoveries in biology and increased knowledge of the
limitations and possibilities of human development, came
the desire on the part of educators and philanthropists to
improve the home life. With the introduction of many
household conveniences came the need of instruction in
their management.
As the cooking of food had been one of the principal
parts of housework, its cost one of the largest drains on
the family income and its effects often the most disastrous,
it seemed natural that reform should begin there.
Almost simultaneously, in different sections of this
country and England, from different motives, several
women of large experience in housekeeping began the
instruction of cookery. Reasoning from the principle
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 127
that we value most that which costs us something, a regu-
lar fee was charged for this instruction, varying with
the means of the people who were able to pay ; but in
many instances this instruction was free to the very poor.
Being persons of education and culture, these women
did not simply teach the manual part of cookery, but they
explained the composition and economic value of food,
the needs of the body and the chemical changes in the
cooking and digestion of food. By their character, en-
thusiasm and earnestness, they gave dignity and grace to
a work which, in the minds of many, was beginning to be
looked upon as menial and degrading.
They taught principles as well as methods. Definite
rules and accurate measurements were used, in place of
the former " little of this," " some of that " and " season
to taste " standards. Fuel and heat, air and water were
studied, and success was proved not to be dependent on
luck or chance. Courses of lessons were arranged, and
pupils soon found that there was more to be learned than
the knack of beating a cake batter to the proper texture.
Other women recognised the importance of this in-
struction, and soon many more classes were organized.
This created a demand for trained teachers, and so
normal classes were formed. Physicians sent classes of
nurses to be trained in cooking for the sick.
Wise and generous women furnished the means by
which experiments were made in teaching cookery to
school children, resulting in the adoption of cookery as a
regular branch of study in many public schools.
So, from single and widely separated beginnings, suffi-
cient interest has been evolved to open the hearts and
purses of some of our men of wealth, and these have es-
tablished schools, institutes and colleges, where one may
secure a thorough training in domestic arts and sciences.
128 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Any one desiring a training for this work should first
decide whether she wishes to be a specialist or be com-
petent to teach any branch of the subject. Having made
her choice, she should send for circulars of the schools
and compare cost and advantages.
The time required for training varies from six months
to four years, and the expense for tuition varies in the
same proportion. Schools are frequently changing their
rates and enlarging their equipment, a notable instance
being the change from twenty dollars for the first normal
class in the Boston Cooking School to several times that
rate at the present time.
What are some of the qualifications needed in students
who choose some branch of domestic science for their
occupation ?
Evidently the notion that any one can teach cooking
continues to exist in the minds of some people. School-
girls who do not care to make the thorough preparation
necessary to enable them to teach in the common schools
often write as though they supposed that much less would
be required from a teacher of cookery. Women of middle
age, tired of keeping boarders, think the experience gained
in a boarding-house, if supplemented by a few lessons in
fancy dishes or novelties, should be sufficient to insure
them a lucrative position immediately.
But the work has broadened and has taken on a vital
meaning, and we now find that the same qualifications are
requisite for success in this as in any other work, whether
it be that of teaching Latin, managing a business or super-
vising the work of others.
I am inclined to place first among the requisites an
abundance of health and vitality. There is hardly any
occupation which makes a greater drain upon one's physi-
cal endurance and nerve force. Other physical qualifica-
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 129
tions are a charming manner, an agreeable personality,
grace of motion, the ability to stand well, absolute clean-
liness in person, dress and appointments ; systematic
method in work, the deftness of fingers which comes
from practice, forgetfulness of self, and surety of results ;
a voice pleasant in tone, distinct in utterance, and of a
good carrying quality — in fact, all the natural and culti-
vated graces and power of a fine public speaker.
Some of the mental qualities desirable are what we
often call " a clear head," not easily disturbed by outside
influences ; the ability to do several things at once, the
manual with the mental, and also a patience unlimited and
a temper well controlled. Executive ability and the fac-
ulty of directing others are equally essential.
Then, of paramount importance is the ability to impart
knowledge in a simple, lucid manner, adapted to pupils
of different ages and varied degrees of intelligence.
" A woman may be a fine cook, yet no school of do-
mestic science can use her unless she be a real teacher.
A woman may be a real teacher, yet no school of domestic
science can use her unless she be a fine cook."
The acquired qualifications are : First, the sure founda-
tion of a high-school or academic education ; and if this
can be supplemented by a normal or college course, or by
some experience in elementary teaching and a knowledge
of school organization, it will be greatly to one's advan-
tage.
The well-trained pupil should have practical work in
teaching, under competent supervision and criticism,
before she goes out before the world as an expert. Much
harm has been done the cause of domestic science by the
neglect of some schools in this essential before giving a
diploma. And if she can have a large experience in the
practical manual work, in the complications incident to
i3o WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
family life, this experience will be of great benefit in her
teaching. She must understand the problems of eco-
nomics, particularly the economic value of food ; must be
in touch with life in all its phases, the needs of the poor
and the superfluities of the rich.
Those teachers whose names are most prominently
before the public, whose writings command the highest
price, whose lectures are most in demand, and who have
filled the most responsible places in public-school kitchens,
are women who had for a foundation a good education, a
long term of practical experience as housekeepers, and
who have added to this experience not only many years
of the study of scientific principles, but an increase in
their store of knowledge.
The young teachers, like young people generally, expect
to begin where the older ones now are. Said a young pupil :
" I want to be just as high as you are, to be able to earn
what you earn."
" But it took fifteen years to do that," was the reply.
" I did not begin where I am now, but have worked my
way up, step by step, over many rough places which I
hope you will never need to climb."
By no means least among the qualities desirable in a
teacher is the ability to put herself in sympathy with her
pupils, and to arouse in them a love for the study of home
science. One cannot have too much enthusiasm in this
work, although some physicians argue that enthusiasm is a
waste of nerve force and should not be aroused. Many
find it a powerful factor for success in all their work, pub-
lic and private.
A teacher should have faith in herself, but she should
not presume on the ignorance of her pupils, or insult them
by reminding them of their deficiencies. Even Mr. Rus-
kin recognises the fact that there is something to be
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 131
learned from the old housekeeper, for he urges us to
combine the " economy of our great-grandmothers and
the science of modern chemistry." A noted scientist says :
" Never make to a child a positive statement that may
have to be contradicted next year. Better qualify it by
saying, « As far as we know now, this is true.' '
New truths are often accepted b^ the mature mind
more readily when not accompanied by sarcasm, or exag-
geration, or reflections on one's mental capacity.
What are the possibilities of a livelihood in domestic
science ?
The demand for competent teachers sometimes far
exceeds the supply, for I regret to say that all who have a
diploma do not manifest special fitness for this work.
Many schools and colleges, particularly the agricultural
colleges in the Middle and Western States, have estab-
lished departments of domestic science.
Positions in the public schools have thus far been con-
fined to the largest cities. Political influence has thwarted
the work in some places where it has been well started.
Kitchen gardens, mission and industrial schools afford a
field that is profitable in experience if not in money. Then
there is often an opportunity for practice classes among
one's friends.
Women's clubs have added to their other departments
classes for practice, lectures and demonstrations.
Schools of housekeeping, women's exchanges and other
organizations create a demand for competent managers.
Matrons for hotels, hospitals and large institutions are
wanted, and such training usually insures a position. Such
positions are often more lucrative than those of teachers,
and are equally honourable.
Many women have found lucrative employment by
editing the household departments in magazines and
i32 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
newspapers, and a course in domestic science makes their
work more valuable. It is a lamentable fact that some
writers have no other qualification than that of a nimble
pen and flow of words. They are experts only in plagiar-
ism.
Food fairs and the introduction of special foods by
demonstrations in stores, and of stoves and kitchen
utensils, are fairly remunerative.
Private catering, management of luncheons and din-
ners, home cooking of specialties, luncheons for schools,
the work of the New England kitchen, diet kitchens, are
some of the other avenues for work.
The salaries for teachers of domestic science in the
public schools vary in different localities, from $500 for
the first year to $1,200 for superintendents. Principals of
private cooking schools are not always paid as high sal-
aries, in proportion to the importance and scope of their
work, as are other teachers. Often a graduate with no
experience will secure a position where the salary is more
than that of her principal.
Teaching for an organization at a fixed salary is, per-
haps, for some women the most lucrative position in the
long run. But many prefer to work independently, and
have classes and lectures all about the country, either for
a definite price, or a share of the profits, or entirely on
their own responsibility.
But probably the greatest remuneration has come to
those who by their writing have been enabled to reach a
much larger number of people than by class teaching.
All of the pioneers in the work have written books on
"Cookery," "Sanitation," "Food," "Household Chem-
istry," or some branch of household economics, or are
connected with household magazines, and this work prob-
ably has added largely to their income and reputation.
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 133
As the work increases, there is in this, as in many other
professions, a tendency to specialization. Success is not
measured, or should not be, from a pecuniary point of
view only, or from newspaper notices. Many a woman
whose name is almost unknown may have laboured as faith-
fully and conscientiously for the home and given as much
practical help to her fellow-women as have those who are
usually reckoned among our successful women.
MARY J. LINCOLN.
WHAT AMATEURS CAN DO.
The Preparation of Fine Articles of Cookery for the Tables
of the Fastidious.
THE mercantile agencies and statistical authorities report
that four out of every five men who engage in active busi-
ness fail and go into bankruptcy sooner or later in their
careers. It will be interesting to note at some future
time whether women have the same gloomy experience.
If one were to predict, knowing the economy and close
management of most women, one would say that the fair
sex in business would be liable to make a better record.
However that may be, the great number of failures in busi-
ness life, under our present system, results necessarily in
many refined women being suddenly and unexpectedly
confronted with the necessity and cares of a business
career.
More than one of such women have undertaken the one
thing which they knew how to do well, and have embarked
in the cooking of cake and pies and the preserving of
fruits as the only means at command for driving the wolf
from the door. Many are now engaged in this calling in
134 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
all parts of the country. The success of some of them is
well known.
Naturally the principal number of those who cook
specially fine and wholesome articles of food for the
market live in the large cities. Those who do not, but
who carry on their business operations in a country town,
must nevertheless look to the cities for their market. The
Woman's Exchange takes a considerable part of the pro-
duct of these private bakeries and canneries, and, indeed,
except for these admirable helps to practical cooks of the
class referred to, only a small percentage of the latter
would be able to do business at all. They are so minutely
occupied with the duty of producing the articles them-
selves, or in superintending a force of cooks, that some
of them have little opportunity to create a circle of buyers
who will take what they have to sell. Some lack the
requisite acquaintances.
Miss Martin, known in all the Eastern States, carried
on her very successful enterprise at Willow Brook, a farm
occupied by the family during its prosperous days, roman-
tically located on the shores of Owasco Lake, near the
city of Auburn, N. Y. Here she developed an industry in
the making of wonderful pies, cakes and preserves which
extended as far as New York City and into other States.
At one time she was able to give constant occupation to
about fifteen cooks.
Other women have followed her example, and such as
have had her admirable executive ability have earned a
comfortable support, not only for themselves, but in some
cases for others dependent upon them. A woman acting
alone, with the aid of one cook, if she is a master of her
calling, can earn from $15 to $25 a week by the sale of
her product at the women's exchanges, provided that the
market is not overstocked. Such earnings are possible
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 135
only in a large city, however, although, so far as that is
concerned, a smaller sum in a smaller city is likely to
yield an equally good support, owing to the reduced
expenses of living in the smaller community.
In the homes of the rich more attention is being paid
now to the healthfulness of all articles of diet than
formerly, and women who can be definitely relied upon to
produce not only palatable and tempting cakes, pies
and preserves, but those which are thoroughly wholesome,
may expect to find a good market for their wares, if they
exercise the same ordinary business sense and manage-
ment which are required in other lines of practical effort.
WORK OF THE " COMPANION."
What Her Duties Are and the Remuneration She Receives.
" PROBABLY no other occupation presents so great a
diversity in its duties, and consequently in the qualifica-
tions necessary for fulfilling them, as that commonly
known as companion," said a woman of experience to a
Tribune reporter.
"The position is usually sought by women who have
had no training, with a view to self-support, and who, in
the hour of misfortune, can think of no other occupation
for which they feel themselves suited. In employment
bureaus the applications for such places are sadly in ex-
cess of the vacancies, and pitiful are the pleas of some of
the applicants.
" Ordinarily the post of companion is a trying one, not
so much because the duties are arduous as because they
are not exactly defined, and the companion is not sure
what time she may call her own. But occasionally the
136 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
place is a pleasant one. A bright woman, who might
have succeeded in other lines, accepted a position as com-
panion to an elderly widow. Her duties were to attend to
some correspondence, to read aloud in French or English,
and to be entertaining. She was an interesting talker,
and did not find the art of entertaining any effort. She
made several trips to Europe with her employer, had a
delightful time, and held her place until she married.
"Another society woman of fine appearance became
companion to the young daughters of a widower. She
merely acted the part of chaperone, and as she enjoyed
social functions she found an ideal place.
" In many cases the companion has the care of an exact-
ing invalid, her work is such as would be required of a
trained nurse, and she has little time that she may call
her own. In some places she performs many household
duties, and where there are children her office, nominally
that of companion, is really * mother's help.'
" The arts of reading aloud and of talking well are
usually indispensable in the companion. The remunera-
tion varies widely. Probably the most exacting positions
return the smallest pay. There are companions who
receive less than $10 a month. Yet one on such a small
salary said she was happy to earn even that, and her
employer, who could not afford more, treated her as a
sister. Fifty dollars a month is considered an uncom-
monly good salary, as the companion has no expense for
board. I knew one who received $100 a month: but hers
was an exceptional case."
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 137
SANITARY LAUNDRY.
A New York Woman Will Dry Clothes in the Sun and Be-
come a Public Benefactor.
THE importance of clean underclothing to health is a
question which is being seriously considered by leading
physicians, and one of the results of this is a sanitary
laundry, which is to be established on the outskirts of
New York City by a woman who has given the matter
careful study for several months. She is enthusiastic
over her new enterprise, and says :
" I think the importance of properly washed and dried
underclothing, which comes in direct contact with the
body, cannot be too strongly impressed on the public
mind. Can it be good for any one, especially an invalid,
to wear clothes which have been washed and dried with-
out being exposed to the deodorizing effects of wind and
sun ?
" In hundreds of laundries linen is dried in close rooms,
and, instead of being returned to its possessor cleansed
from all impurities, as well as from actual visible dirt, it
absorbs additional ones and becomes a source of disease.
Those people who are unable to inhale fresh air and
derive benefit from the warm, life-giving rays of the sun,
owing to ill-health, should be particularly careful to have
their clothes washed and dried out of doors in order that
the air may thoroughly purify them.
" Dwellers in cities will find that it will add greatly to
their comfort and health to send their linen to the coun-
try to be washed. In these days of easy transit it will be
little trouble to do this. Let any one smell linen that has
been dried on the green grass in the sun, and then smell
that which has been dried in a close, poorly ventilated
138 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
room, beside a cooking stove, and he will be convinced of
the truth of my remarks.
" People who suffer from any disease of the skin will
derive much benefit from wearing clean linen, often re-
newed, which has been charged during the cleaning pro-
cess with fresh air. If linen has a gray or yellow tinge
and does not smell sweet and fresh, it should not be worn.
The proper cleansing and deodorizing of linen are as im-
portant as is the daily bath or the proper construction of
the drains of houses.'*
The prospective sanitary laundry will have the indorse-
ment of several leading physicians as well as of the Board
of Health. The woman who has projected the scheme will
incorporate with it many scientific methods of work, and
among the features will be a mending department, where
" bachelor's buttons " will be supplied gratuitously.
WAGES OF THE COOK.
Her Employment Now Mainly in Private Houses.
TEN years ago women were employed extensively in
restaurants, hotels, bakeries and similar establishments
for the important duties of cooking. In country hotels
and small city eating-houses they are yet found, giving
close attention to duty and performing their office well.
But in large hotels and restaurants women are now being
largely displaced by men, owing to the superior physical
strength and endurance of the latter, and they find their
own best employment in private homes.
The salary paid to the good cook in a private home va-
ries in different parts of the country ; but in every region
where the current rate of wages is affected by that preva-
lent in a nearby and leading city, cooks may expect from
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. 139
$3-5° to $5 a week, according to age and experience.
Exceptional length of service and ability may increase the
rate of compensation, especially if there are other cooks
whom one is to superintend.
In restaurants, especially where a woman cook has
charge of making the pastry, her wages may rise to $8 or
$10 a week.
In the latter class of cases, however, it is likely that
the moment a cook's salary rises to the vicinity of $10 the
restaurant will think of employing a man for this work.
The man will then obtain a salary larger than is given the
woman, say often as high as $12 to $15 a week.
From the large manufacturing bakeries women have
now disappeared almost altogether as cooks.
IN A MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL,
The Varied Experience of a Young Student.
WHEN it is said that a poet is born, not made, it is
meant, of course, that he will pursue instinctively and
irrepressibly, in spite of seemingly adverse circumstances,
the lines requisite for a poet's development. And so one
often sees the ultimate triumph of special fitness exempli-
fied in other callings of life.
The c:iri;t:r of Mr--. Mary Holme reck, of Denver, Col.,
is a G'ise in point. Two years ;>o-.-, H*.i<; young vvoii].;n
came to New York for the purpr./c : ' ••:i\ ing art, hav-
ing in mind some practical thought, ^iiuer illustrating or
designing. She studied six months in the private studio of
Edgar M. Ward, and subsequently entered the Academy
of Design. Later she was led to take up stenography,
thinking to teach it in the schools, but after spending
140 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
nine months upon this study she found to her cost that
she had been taught a system of use only in Brooklyn
schools, in which, unhappily, no vacancies existed. She
was reduced to the need of teaching private pupils, and
at the same time took up the study of domestic art at
Pratt Institute — a subject she had always liked, but
thought it waste of time to study.
Here she seemed to have found her proper sphere.
Working, however, through the most unfavourable condi-
tions and every conceivable hardship, she did a year's
work at Pratt's, and a few days ago received an appoint-
ment in the Manual Training High School of Denver.
For this school she has nothing but the highest praise.
" No better school of its kind exists in this country," she
writes enthusiastically to a friend. And again, " I con-
sider myself highly favoured in being appointed here, and
started in last week a happy woman, confident of my suc-
cess as a teacher of sewing, because of my perfect train-
ing and natural ability for that branch of work."
CLERKS AND OPERATORS.
GIRLS IN CLERICAL WORK.
S. S. Packard on Stenography. — No Better Opportunity Any-
where for a Young Woman of Fair Education,
Persistent Application and Common-Sense.
SOME thirty years ago it came to me that many business
houses in New York were badly served in clerkships,
owing in no small degree to the fact that good, capable
women were not employed in the place of incompetent
and inconsequent boys ; and I thought it might be worth
the effort to do what lay in my power to change this con-
dition. This was before the introduction of the type-
writer, and before the proved utility of the office stenog-
rapher. I accordingly advertised through the best
mediums, reaching the city and into the suburban places,
for fifty intelligent and courageous young women who
would accept a business training at my hands and hold
themselves ready for such positions as might offer. In
response to this appeal I obtained thirty girls and young
women ranging from eighteen to thirty-five years of age.
I proposed to educate them at my own expense and to
supply them all with paying situations. They were zestful
and ambitious, and soon removed any doubt I had as to
the good results which might follow. Comparatively few
came from the country, and they were all self-supporting
women or those who desired to be such. None sought the
instruction merely as an accomplishment.
142 ' WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
As soon as I discovered the particular qualities of indi-
vidual students I opened a correspondence with business
houses, selecting those most likely to require the kind of
service that women could render. These were publica-
tion offices, lawyers' offices and the class of retail mercan-
tile houses in which I felt sure good places could be
eventually secured. I simply said to these possible
employers that I had at command a number of well-proved,
efficient women clerks, who were not only able to work,
but willing to do so, and who could readily supplant ineffi-
cient office boys and young men who depended upon their
sex to hold their own as against women of whatever quali-
fications. The result was that I had no difficulty in plac-
ing every well-qualified girl in a paying position.
The most gratifying thing about the whole matter was
the sense of thankfulness which was awakened in the
hearts of the employers. It was discovered that there
were ever so many things in and about offices that were
supposed to be within the scope of young men alone that
could be done quite as efficiently and appropriately by
girls ; such, for instance, as managing office details and
taking charge of department work. In a number of
instances my bright girls developed into competent man-
agers, and in a few cases, now vivid in my memory,
achieved distinguished success as executive officers in
houses where they began as subordinate clerks. The
advent of the typewriter opened a new and limitless field,
and I had the great satisfaction of placing the first girl
stenographer in business. This line of employment, as is
now so well known, was especially adapted to the clear
brain, quick fingers and methodical habits of the resource-
ful girl, and it is not at all strange that it has grown to be
almost exclusively " woman's work."
To such an extent is this true that it is difficult to find
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 143
young men willing to undertake stenography as a profes-
sion, and so to-day one of our chief difficulties is to nil
the places that are open and so full of promise in the way
of advancement, for it goes without saying that there are
many stenographic positions which can be filled only by
young men.
One of the deplorable results, however, of this demand
for young women as stenographers has been the precipi-
tation upon the business community of a horde of half-
qualified girls, who get a smattering of instruction in
schools and otherwise and push themselves into places
which they are wholly incompetent to fill. A feeling pre-
vails among the unthinking that to be able to manipulate
typewriter keys and " take down " from dictation at an
assumed speed cover the requirements in this department
of work, while the fact is that there is probably no clerical
position in which brains count for so much. To be the
accepted medium of communication between the business
or professional man and his correspondents is to be a
trusted and faithful employee, and any degree of aptness,
intelligence or fidelity is sure to meet its reward.
In spite of the plethora of applicants for stenographic
places, there has never yet been a time, and is not likely
to be, when competent female stenographers will not be
needed, and in all my experience as an instructor it has
never been difficult to place a competent stenographer.
Let it be understood at the outset, however, that a com-
petent stenographer can never be measured by the ability
to write a hundred words a minute without understanding
them, or manipulating a machine, however deftly, unac-
companied with the sense which renders the work accept-
able.
The question of most interest to the seeker of profitable
employment pertains undoubtedly to the cost of acquiring
i44 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
competence, to the probability of being able to do the
work and to the place which can be secured, and these
questions are all difficult to answer so that they will fit
individual cases. To those who are able to stand the
expense the surest and best means of becoming expert
stenographers is through the best schools, and it so hap-
pens that in all parts of the country, and especially in our
large cities, there are well-conducted, efficient schools
where the learner, having inherent qualifications and a
fair English education, can eventually count upon attain-
ing to proficiency of the highest order. It is within the
scope of efficient teachers absolutely to fit the students
for the most exacting duties of stenographic work, and it
is not impossible for an energetic and intelligent young
woman to acquire the art through private study, with such
assistance as may easily be had from practical stenogra-
phers.
As to the pay for acceptable work, the chances are per-
haps better in this field than in any other where women
are generally employed. No proficient stenographer, even
without large experience as such, need work for less than
from $8 to $10 a week at the start, and that with an assur-
ance of steady advancement. The rates paid for good
stenographers in the best business houses to-day vary
from $10 to $20 a week, and there is possibly no line of
work in which women can engage having a fairer prospect
of leading to something even better.
There are, of course, many desirable openings for girls
as mere copyists on the typewriter, where a knowledge of
stenography is not absolutely required. The chances for
advancement, however, in these places are very limited.
No woman should undertake the study of stenography
and typewriting until she has a good use of her mother
tongue, both spoken and written. With that knowledge
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 145
added to general intelligence — the more the better — and
an earnest determination to be thorough, there can be no
doubt of her success. It should be added that pupils
beyond the ordinary school age are likely to have some
difficulty in acquiring the manual facility necessary,
unless the training of mind and hand has been continued
after the school days are over.
However, even those who fail to become very rapid
writers sometimes more than make amends for this defi-
ciency by good judgment, carefulness, fidelity and general
reliability.
S. S. PACKARD.
TYPEWRITING A REAL ART.
Novices' Funny Blunders. — No Earnest Girl Who Wishes to
Be Self -Supporting Need Be Scared by Jesters' Paragraphs. —
Most Employers Are Gentlemen.
A chiel's amang ye takin' notes,
And, faith, he'll prent it.
ACCORDING to the humourous paragrapher, the woman
stenographer and typewriter is commonly regarded as a
frivolous, illiterate and irresponsible young person, who
acts the part of the " pretty typewriter " in the domestic
drama with the untrustworthy husband and employer and
the jealous wife. The squibs appear with wearying fre-
quency and monotony.
" They would be more pardonable if they were less
inane," said a well-known stenographer. " But they are
as deficient in originality and as poor in taste as the
hackneyed jokes about the mother-in-law."
The manners and morals of a small minority offer a
146 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
slight foundation for such innuendoes. But the repre-
sentative stenographer is a responsible business woman,
capable, faithful and thoroughly in earnest. She is often
elderly, and not always beautiful.
And as a rule, though the woman in his service be
young and attractive, the employer does not misuse his
position. He is a busy man, anxious to have his work
done promptly and well, and his relations to the stenog-
rapher are in general strictly of a business nature.
Good principle exists in business offices, despite the para-
grapher and the fact that some unprincipled persons are
found there.
In the offices of a well-known firm in Wall Street a dig-
nified, middle-aged woman has the oversight of the steno-
graphic department. When illness in her family called
her away for two or three months the head of the firm
sought a substitute of equal age and discretion as a sort of
office mother for the younger ones. By his orders the
young girls must not be kept late, and thus be obliged to
go home alone after dark. As a " gentleman of the old
school," with daughters of his own, he believes that duty
calls him to exercise a fatherly care for those who ar,e in
his employ. A well-bred man is as courteous to his
stenographer as he is to other women, and from all sorts
and conditions of men whom she meets in the business
world the self-respecting stenographer receives respect-
ful consideration.
44 There is a marked change in my husband's office
since Miss X. went there," said the wife of a prominent
iron merchant. " Everything appears so much more
neat and orderly, and there is a decorum in the conduct
of the young men that was not in evidence before her
advent."
The charge of illiteracy in young stenographers has
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 147
some justification. It is true of the stenographer of a
certain class that —
There be maidens fair as she,
Whose verbs and nouns do more agree.
One of this grade, after long consideration of her
notes, transcribed a phrase as " He hadn't oughter go."
She " went " the next morning, and her distracted em-
ployer, when seeking a successor, stipulated that ability
to write English should have precedence of speed in tak-
ing dictation.
Another, believing that a " counter proposition " must
necessarily relate to the sale of goods, constructed a sen-
tence accordingly. A stenographer from the country
transcribed the close of " Quod bene notandum " as
" tandem," and sought despairingly through her notes for
a reference to the horses. But, excepting the ordinary
terms used in law, the employer should not have expected
her to be familiar with foreign phrases.
Defects in early education are overcome with difficulty ;
the art of writing and speaking grammatically cannot be
acquired in the time usually devoted to the study of
stenography, and thus illiterate stenographers hold certifi-
cates from some schools.
In many commercial houses there is little variety in the
correspondence, and stenographers who can spell words
in general use and who have some knowledge of business
forms often fill such places satisfactorily, though their
education does not qualify them for an extensive and
varied correspondence or the work of a reporter.
A woman who accepted a place with an association of
engineers, and whose duties were to report the discus-
sions of the society for publication in its journal,
found that the membership included civil, mechanical
i48 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
and mining engineers, electricians, architects and the pro-
fessors in a scientific school ; the last-named brought
papers on astronomy, geology, chemistry and various
abstruse subjects for discussion. In order to hold her
place she was obliged to take an arduous course of
study to familiarize herself with the technical terms em-
ployed, and to devise brief word-signs for them. The
stenographer of a patent lawyer requires a wider vocabu-
lary than one who is employed in the ordinary law of-
fice. The all-around stenographic reporter should, like
the competent newspaper man or woman, " know some-
thing of everything."
Some notes, such as those of court testimony, must be
given " verbatim et literatim," but in reports of speeches,
sermons and in some correspondence, though the precise
sense must be retained, the sound may be changed.
" Exact stenography, like exact photography, is apt to
show harsh lines." As a rule, extempore sermons and
addresses require editing in the transcription. Some em-
ployers do not use correct English. Others, in the hurry
of business life, dictate involved and ambiguous sen-
tences, and desire the amanuensis to make the necessary
revision. No assistant should revise without authority
to do so.
In regard to study in a stenographic school, it is said
that no definite period can be given for the time required,
as the general education and aptitude of students vary
greatly, but after a course of six months the average
student should be able to take a place as amanuensis.
The cost is $10 a month. Private lessons are given at
from 50 to 75 cents a lesson.
One stenographic school says that a student of average
.-'.",; ility and application requires about three terms, of ten
vveeks each, to complete the course and become qualified
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 149
to accept a place in a business office. The charge is $45
a term. Some acquire the requisite knowledge in a short
time, others need a longer period. A more extended
course is required for the place of court reporter.
It is said that a few women stenographers in responsible
places receive several thousand dollars a year ; but they
shine in heights as far removed from the struggling
amanuensis as the lofty places where the great literary
lights walk are above the plane of the minor poet and tale-
maker.
Some stenographers work in offices for as little as $6 a
week ; a small minority receive $25 or $30 a week. The
average compensation is about $10 a week.
A competent stenographer, in business for herself, may
make a comparatively large income. Unless she merely
takes desk room in an office, she must pay a high rent in
a good business neighbourhood, and meet other expenses.
The stenographer of established reputation receives 25
cents a folio for law work and testimony ; 15 to 18 cents
a folio for other work ; for typewriting from a copy, five
cents a folio, and a higher rate for copying tabulated
work. If several copies are furnished, there is an addi-
tional charge for each carbon copy. Thus it is possible
for a stenographer to make $8 or $10 a day, but such
hard work could not be kept up daily except by one with
great endurance. Physique and temperament are import-
ant factors in the success of a stenographer. Long and
rapidly dictated reports are a severe strain on the nervous
system.
Court reporters receive $10 a day when on duty. In
New York and in nearly all of the States there are women
in this position, but the number is comparatively small.
Women outnumber men as teachers of shorthand, and have
been most successful in this line.
150 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Among the women in New York who are at the head of
stenographic firms where assistants are employed are
Miss A. P. Alder, No. 156 Broadway ; the Misses Buttner,
Mills Building ; Miss A. R. Cooper, No. in Broadway ;
the Misses Cronyn and Holland, No. 150 Nassau St. ;
Mrs. M. L. Ferris, No. 206 Broadway ; Miss S. A.
Fletcher, No. 1,125 Broadway ; Miss F. M. Gill, No. 51
Chambers St.; M. E. Hill & Co., No. 5 Beekman St.; the
Misses Jackson and Newton, No. 26 Cortlandt St.; Miss
L. Kraus, No. 120 Broadway ; Miss A. T. Mallon, No. 309
Broadway ; Miss E. F. Pettingill, No. 26 Court St., Brook-
lyn ; Miss M. R. Pollock, No. 280 Broadway, New York ;
Miss Jennie T. Powers, No. 32 Nassau St.; Miss C. G.
Pratt, Cotton Exchange ; Miss F. Ranney, No. 115 Broad-
way ; Ella Rawls & Co., Mills Building ; Z. & L. Rosen-
field, No. 1,440 Broadway ; Miss Cora Smith, No. 71
Broadway ; Mrs. Frances A. Ramsay, No. 19 Union
Square. And there are other professional stenographers
of high standing who are not named here.
Miss E. N. Hutchings, who was associated with the late
Miss Seymour, has offices at Nos. 120 and 141 Broadway.
Miss A. Tileston does a large business at the Astor House
and at No. 120 Broadway. The Misses F. S. and J. B.
Johnson, who came to New York from Wisconsin only two
years ago, have already built up a substantial business ;
their offices are in the Bank of Commerce Building, No.
31 Nassau St. Miss S. L. Conglin, at No. 8 East Forty-
second St., places stenographers in positions, furnishes
typewriting machines and supplies, revises manuscript,
and carries books, pamphlets, etc., through the press.
One of the best-known shorthand writers in this coun-
try is Mrs. Isabel C. Burrows. She is the wife of the Rev.
Samuel J. Burrows, of Boston, Editor of The Christian
Register, who is now a member of Congress. Soon after
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 151
her marriage, in 1867, Mrs. Burrows occupied her hus-
band's place as private secretary to William H. Seward.
Later, during a year of study in the University of Vienna,
she took her notes in shorthand, translating into English
as the professor spoke. This practice enabled her after-
ward to perform the feat of taking a speech of Carl
Schurz in German, translating it mentally into English
and recording it in shorthand. Mrs. Burrows was the
first woman employed in the Capitol at Washington, and
was requested to sign only her initials when drawing her
pay, lest she should be discharged if it were known that
a woman was doing the work.
When every one employed in the Capitol was required
to take the " ironclad oath," she was obliged to march to
the room of the sergeant-at-arms and swear that she
never had borne and never would bear arms against her
country. Since leaving Washington she has reported the
sessions of conferences and associations, edited the notes
and put the volumes through the press. She is also her
husband's amanuensis.
On August ii of this year a woman who was honoured
for her noble character as well as for her great intellec-
tual gifts passed away. This was Mrs. Sophia Brauenlich,
who, when a young widow, began her business career in
1879 as amanuensis in the office of The Engineering
and Mining Journal, a place which was secured for her
by S. S. Packard. Her talents and tireless industry enabled
her to work her way up until she became exchange reader
and exchange news editor. In 1888 she was appointed sec-
retary and treasurer of the Scientific Publishing Company,
and performed the duties of the place in addition to her
other work until the time of her death. In January, 1890,
she was made business manager of the company, in which
place she showed remarkable executive ability and effi-
152 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ciency in every respect. Mrs. Brauenlich was a member of
the Professional Woman's League, and was the first Amer-
ican woman elected a Fellow of the Imperial Institute of
London. In the issue of The Engineering and Mining
Journal which contained the notice of her death the
editor paid a touching tribute to the worth of his co-
worker.
These women have demonstrated the fact that it is pos-
sible for members of their sex to "achieve success in
a calling that is said to require a training as broad and
many sided as men are commonly supposed to need for
similar undertakings. As in everything else, real ability
to perform the work assumed will meet with a proper
acknowledgment and be rewarded with the usual com-
pensation and honours.
MARY B. SANFORD.
BE YOUR OWN TYPEWRITER.
Penmanship Declining. — A Typewriting Machine Which Is
Especially Suitable for a Woman.
" There goes haughty Miss Le Grand."
" I'll wager she's off for a frolic, and has sartorial arti-
cles galore in that smart receptacle swaying jauntily at
her side."
" Not a bit of it. It's her staff and her crutch."
Mrs. Curio dropped her inquisitorial lorgnette.
" What do you mean ? "
"I mean that haughty Miss Le Grand and her type-
writer are off on a money-making jaunt."
" A typewriter in that dainty satchel ? Nonsense. It
requires a furniture van to transport a machine."
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 153
" My dear, how your optical education has been neglected.
Every up-to-date woman in the bread-winning world
knows that American ingenuity has long ago invented a
machine, portable as a watch, adjustable as a folding bed,
hardy traveller as an engineer or sailor, and capable of
clean-cut, speedy work."
" And the paragon costs a fortune, of course ? "
" It's within the reach of humble purses."
" Could I learn to manipulate it ? "
" Can a child play marbles ? "
" There's no denying : typewritten manuscript is becom-
ing imperative. Do you know, I half suspect that my last
stories have been returned without a reading, simply
because they were not typewritten. But it costs so much.
Fifty cents a thousand words soon mounts up."
" Why not heed the advice of W. D. Howells — Be your
own typewriter ? "
Legible penmanship is a lost art. So long has the fact
been recognised in the business world that a typewriter
is as essential as an office to the transaction of affairs.
Its indispensability has outgrown the confines of the
world mercantile. The time is not distant when it will be
as conspicuous an essential to the well-ordered household
as is the piano. Its skilful manipulation, as is well known,
gives employment to thousands of women. But it is not
to the professional or would-be professional woman type-
writer, but rather to the woman who depends largely
upon written thought for livelihood or well-doing in club
and church work for mental or social advancement that
the advice of the great realist particularly appeals.
How might the woes of the rejected be assuaged, could
they realise how great a part mechanical make-up plays
in the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript ! Unhap-
pily, the fact is not generally known, save to those in per-
154 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
sonal touch with the inner life of editorial sanctums. In
newspaper offices and publishing houses mail is generally
separated before perusal into the handwritten and the type-
written. The latter is invariably read first, while the
former, if it be manuscript unordered, or bear a signature
unknown, awaits the leisure or the caprice of the editor.
The reason is obvious. Time is money. All that tends
to simplify living is accepted. So great is the revolution
wrought by the typewriter in the saving of time, money
and annoyance, that not a few editors refuse to consider
handscript, and issue printed notices to that effect.
What woman in an office which entails much corres-
pondence will withhold sympathy from the editor inflicted
with the script of the average woman ? Growing are the
number of women who depend for livelihood on news-
paper and magazine writing, while the name of the occa-
sional contributor is legion. No wideawake club woman
has failed to note the advantage of the typewritten address
and the part " manifold copy " plays in spreading her
fame abroad. Reporters are human, and, while they may
recognise that the paper of Mrs. Slowgirl is a literary
gem, time is wanting to struggle through the hieroglyphics
in which it is embedded. Consequently, the typewritten
copy which Miss Wideawake proffers is borne off in
triumph, and the latter has the satisfaction of seeing her
vituperation made a feature in the morning journal.
" But it costs so much to have copy typewritten," says
the space writer. " It eats up the profits."
" It would break me up," objects the club woman,
scheduled for a score of papers.
"I know its value," admits the teacher. "But a
machine takes up so much room, and it is noisy."
There was a time when these objections would have
been irrefutable. That was before the advent of the
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 155
Blickensderfer No. 5, which may be had, with its scien-
tific keyboard, including one extra typewheel, one dozen
ink rolls and one tool outfit, packed in a polished, hand-
portable hardwood case, for $35. In capacity, speed and
practical efficiency it is the equal of any typewriter of any
other make now in the market. In convenience it is unex-
celled. Therein lies its chief merit and charm to all
classes and conditions of women. It weighs scarcely six
pounds. It takes paper eight and a half inches wide. It
does not require a porter or drayman to transfer it from
place to place. It may rest on my lady's dressing-table
without detracting from its decorativeness, or crown the
stovetop of the hall-bedroom scribe. If the unexpected
arrive, and trace of the " shop " be objectionable, it may
be readily concealed in the bureau drawer. The writing
is always in plain sight, and so simple is the manipula-
tion of the keyboard that no school training is necessary.
The most stupid person, with application, can soon get
up speed. It admits manifolding with force and clear-
ness.
" I am thinking," writes Mr. Poultney Bigelow, " of
making my ' Blick ' write her own biography. She has
been behind me on a bicycle in Spain ; she has bobbed
over the waves of Manila Bay in my canoe Caribee ; she
has ridden in jinrickishas and been at the mercy of bag-
gage-smashers, and yet she ticks away as merrily as if
she had never left an office desk."
In leather travelling-case, with pocket for stationery, a
Blickensderfer is a perpetual joy to women on the move ;
and who is stationary in these progressive times ? To
have 35,000 words typewritten costs $35. Why not
invest that sum in a Blickensderfer No. 5 (The Blickens-
derfer Manufacturing Company, No. 182 Broadway, New
York) and — be your own typewriter ?
156 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
PRIVATE SECRETARIES.
Women Have a Peculiar Tact Most Serviceable in Such
Strictly Confidential Positions.
" WHEN you ask me about the duties and qualifications
necessary for a private secretary," said a woman who has
filled such a place for fifteen years, " I suppose you mean
the secretary of a business man.
" In these days the secretary must be a stenographer
and typewriter, though she writes many letters that do
not come under the head of business correspondence.
She must be well educated in ordinary English branches,
and should have some knowledge of French and German,
at least. Added to this, two qualities that are desirable
for any woman in a clerical position, or in any position,
are absolutely indispensable for the secretary. They are
discretion and a talent for classification ; or, in other
words, a methodical mind.
" If she is not discreet, she may unwittingly reveal what
she should have concealed, and thus do as much wrong in
effect as if she had deliberately betrayed a trust. * She is
so diplomatic,' complained an old friend on the return of
a young woman who had gone abroad as amanuensis to a
high official. * She won't tell anything.' But it is better
to appear unduly reticent than to be indiscreetly com-
municative.
" The secretary of a well-known literary man when
asked about her employer's plans laughingly quoted, * If
one knows it, it's i ; if two know it, it's 2 ; but if three
know it, it's 3.' As there are persons who descend to the
kitchen or the laundry in search of information who are
not above questioning the neighbour's cook, washerwoman
or other domestic regarding family affairs, so there are
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 157
persons who do not hesitate to seek knowledge of a man's
private or business concerns through one who is in his
confidence, and discretion is the more necessary because
direct questioning is not the usual method. A few days
after I took my place my employer said : ' I want you to
open my business letters every morning, and place them
ready for me on my desk. My private letters you will
leave unopened.' ' How shall I be sure which are private
letters ? ' I inquired. * Err on the safe side,' was his
only reply ; and I have found the advice useful in many
perplexing situations.
" In addition to the correspondence, my principal duty
is the care of all documents, the filing and indexing of
letters, reports, bills, receipts, notes, etc., and keeping an
account of expenditures. When I transfer the contents
of a letter-file in its binding-case I make a .typewritten
alphabetical index of names, dates and subjects and place
it at the top of the file. I make similar indexes
for all documents that I keep in files. When anything is
required at a moment's notice, a glance at the index
shows where it is, and no time is lost in searching
through several files. I index the letter copying-books in
the same way, and, of course, label all pigeon-holes care-
fully. I also keep an address-book and a diary. In the
diary there is a record of all visitors to the office, and an
account of important interviews, etc. Not long ago a
man who was required to state in court the date of his
last visit to New York came to me for assistance,
as his memory had failed on that point. By turning to
the diary I was able to give him the date of his call at
our office."
158 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
WAGE-EARNING WITH THE PEN.
An Army of Women Employed. — Women Preferred in
Many Ways.
IN purely clerical service (the performance of work
which can be done only with a pen) there is an immense
field of employment for women in business houses.
It is true that this work is the simplest of any in business
houses, and that, accordingly, the pay is often moderate.
Yet this sort of work serves as the means of support for
tens of thousands of women, and is often a stepping-stone
to something better. In Government departments, stores,
newspaper offices, the headquarters of many corporations
and small factories, insurance offices and a variety of
other business concerns there is a vast amount of writing,
keeping of accounts, addressing, copying and similar pen-
work which can be done by women as well as by men, and
in which, perhaps, they give better satisfaction than men.
Let not an aspirant for a clerkship of this class think,
however, that any woman can give satisfaction in such a
place. A good and legible hand is, of course, the one
indispensable requisite. But beyond that, patience,
accuracy, painstaking attention to details, regular hours,
respect for superiors and a sense of responsibility are of
the highest importance ; and any girl who is equal to
these things will find that her penmanship operates largely
as a means of introducing her other business qualifications
to the attention of an employer.
Women have, as a rule, fewer financial responsibilities
than men, and are therefore able to work for smaller pay.
The small salary that they require is sometimes the factor
which gains them a place. But if it were not also true
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 159
that they make excellent and faithful clerks they would
not stand the ghost of a chance in comparison with men.
They do not drink ; they are honest ; they seldom talk
about the business of their employers away from the
office ; they are attentive to the clients of the house, and
they seem more willing to stay a few minutes over the
regular hours whenever there is a rush of work and say
nothing about it. These things cannot always be said of
young men in clerical positions.
The pay varies in different cities and in different estab-
lishments. But, as a rule, a good penman in the simplest
forms of clerical work will earn from $5 to $8 a week ;
with growing experience and the possession of other
qualities she will earn in time $10 to $15 a week. Our
cities are full of women who can earn from $12 to $15 a
week whose routine duty is the keeping of accounts and the
performance of other work which can be done only with
the pen, but who also are called upon to display a little
judgment and fidelity in the general interests of the estab-
lishment. There are a few women bookkeepers who earn
$15 and $20 a week in mercantile establishments in
large cities.
DOTS, DASHES, SWITCHBOARD.
Women Earn Moderate Salaries. — M. E. Randolph Explaim
the Advantages of Those Who Learn in an Office.
WOMEN have for years demonstrated their ability and
fitness for telegraphy. The present outlook, however, is
not encouraging. New inventions continue to bring
about changes that threaten vitally to affect telegraphy
as a bread-winning occupation for both men and women.
160 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
A recent invention makes it possible for a large share of
the work to be done mechanically, one operator being
able to accomplish work which formerly required the
services of four persons. If this invention continues as
successful as its present working promises, it will greatly
reduce the working force in large offices.
" How can a woman learn the profession ? " is frequently
asked. A thorough public-school education is an essential
foundation to success ; rapid, legible penmanship is abso-
lutely necessary, likewise the gift to decipher any scrawl
that may be inflicted in the hurry and pressure of business.
There is a school for telegraphy in Cooper Union, New
York City, where a woman may be instructed in the art
and fitted for a place. This school has graduated a
number of operators who have attained success.
Less expensive than a regular school, and generally
entirely satisfactory in result, is instruction received
through a friend, a practical operator in the business,
who can provide facilities for practice. In some large
telegraph offices boys and girls, who serve as " pick up "
and " distributing" clerks, also pick up a knowledge of the
art. After acquiring a certain proficiency they are
allowed time and place for practice. Later they are
tested, after the manner of any one applying for a place.
If they pass, their names are entered on the roll of
employees in the operating department. S&me of the best
operators in the country have learned in this way.
The salary to begin with is small. Most of the novices
work a long time before they receive $35 or $40 a month.
To girls who have good homes this is endurable, but to
the less fortunate it presents a difficult problem.
To a woman who is well adapted for it there is no more
congenial employment than telegraphy. It takes the
average woman a year to acquire it. She starts with a
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 161
salary of $25, possibly $30 a month, and the mills that
grind out advances in salaries " grind exceeding slow and
small." Exceptional ability does not now receive the
recognition granted it in former years. After two years'
experience any boy or girl who can satisfactorily exchange
one hundred and fifty messages a day should receive from
$35 to $40 a month, according to grade of work performed,
with further increase of $5 a month each half-year until a
maximum salary is reached.
To an educated woman I would say, become a teacher
in the public schools, where faithful service is in after
years rewarded by a pension, and where a vacation is
given once a year.
The educated woman about to choose an employment
should bear in mind that in many places vacations are
allowed with pay. The telegrapher takes a vacation at
her own expense. There are, of course, exceptions to
this rule. Hundreds of women employed in brokers' and
other private offices in large cities usually have shorter
hours and better salaries. Such places are only within
the reach of expert operators. In the West many women
are managers of railroad offices and perform their im-
portant duties with entire satisfaction, while throughout
the country women in charge of small offices and having
the successful control of interests intrusted to them are
living happy, contented lives.
Fifty dollars a month is now the maximum salary for a
woman operator. Many influences have combined to
lower salaries. One of the chief of these is that education
worthy the name is no longer required of an operator. In
the routine work of the offices boys and girls learn the
location of places and acquire a quickness of perception
and facility for memorizing that stand them in good stead
when they become operators. People having this kind of
162 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
talent do not feel the larger needs of educated intelli-
gences, and are therefore content in these circumstances.
There is no possible objection physically or morally to
women in this profession. Given proper sanitary environ-
ment, with " restful seats " — which are vital factors in
preventing nervous prostration — with judicious indulgence
in social functions, no late hours, but plenty of sleep, a
woman can enjoy the best of health and practise teleg-
raphy for years with impunity, if not with great profit.
M. E. RANDOLPH.
SOFT ANSWER TO " HELLO ! "
Patient Courtesy Goes Far to Make a Good Telephone Girl. —
Herbert Laws Webb Details the Things a Central-
Office Recruit Must Learn and Her Chances
of Advancement.
JUST how the calculation is made it is scarcely worth
while to show here, but it is probably not far out of the
way to say that at the present time about one out of
every fifteen hundred young American women is a tele-
phone operator. As the use of the telephone service is
rapidly increasing, this proportion is steadily going up, so
that telephone operating claims a fair place for itself as a
vocation for women, It is a work for which women are
particularly well fitted. That was found out in the early
days of the industry.
At first boys and young men were put to work at the
switchboard. But Young America is not easily taught to
be either civil or accurate, and telephone operating in its
early days was accompanied by many unnecessary diffi-
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 163
culties. There was only one other sex to try, so recourse
was had to the gentler half of mankind, not without som;-:
misgivings on the part of telephone managers, who thought
that machines needed men to tend them. But girls — that
is, most girls — are naturally polite and soft-spoken, and
politeness and soft-speaking go a long way over the tele-
phone. Also girls, in spite of the perennial jokes in the
comic papers written by men, can be accurate when they
are taught to be and are made to keep it up by judicious
supervision. So the girl replaced the boy, and so great
was the improvement that the telephone girl promptly
became an established institution.
That she is the right person in the right place is not
infrequently brought to the mind even of those who have
never been accustomed to any one else at " central " by
the occasional experiences one has with the pert office
boy or young clerk who often appears at the other end of
one's telephone line.
Just how the deft-fingered young woman at " central,"
who presides over the critical point in a network of hun-
dreds of thousands of miles of wire, and makes myriads of
combinations a day, with only a rare error, arrives at her
position may be shown by a description of the working of
the traffic department of the New York Telephone Com-
pany, one of the largest and best-organized telephone
concerns in the country.
The traffic department is the branch of the company's
organization responsible for the operation of the sub-
scribers' lines, and to the superintendent of this depart-
ment the embryo operator must direct her steps. Few
applicants have had previous experience — practically all
are absolute beginners — so that the only qualifications to
be inquired about are those that will insure the beginner
a fair chance to qualify as an expert operator. These
164 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
are good eyesight, good hearing, distinct enunciation,
fair penmanship and general neatness. At least medium
height is required, and a bit over is an advantage. Re-
cruits should be at the teachable age, say, between seven-
teen and twenty-one, and should have a good common-
school education. Of course, satisfactory references as to
general good character are indispensable, and are always
forthcoming.
With this not very formidable list of qualifications to
face there are naturally always plenty of applicants, and
of these an eligible list of goodly length is kept on file in
the office of the superintendent of traffic. To be placed
on this list is as far as the would-be operator gets at first.
When vacancies occur, or when, through increase of sub-
scribers, additions must be made to the operating force,
which is, indeed, the normal condition of the New York
Telephone Company, letters are sent out to the eligibles,
requesting them to report for duty if they are still of the
same mind.
The beginner is normally appointed to the night force,
whose work is naturally light, and is put on the payrolls
from the day she starts to learn the business. Not a very
large pay at first, but still a definite weekly salary during
a time which varies with the natural capacity of the
learner, but averages about three months, when the be-
ginner can be trusted with no actual operating, but is
simply watching, listening and learning.
The training process is gradual. At first the learner
sits close up to a busy operator and watches the work.
Wearing one of the regular operators' head telephones,
she listens to the calls coming in and notices how the
operator disposes of them ; how she handles the various
plugs and cords and keys and little indicators of which
the complicated switchboard is made up. Verbal instruc-
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 165
tion is given her as to the use of the different parts of the
switchboard, and gradually she learns to follow all that
goes on. She learns that when an indicator falls a sub-
scriber has called, and that the operator must put a plug
in a certain hole and promptly say into the transmitter,
"What number?" The number being given, another
plug is seized and pressed into a hole picked out among
ranges of hundreds of holes in the upper part of the
board. A key is pressed which rings the bell of the
second number, and the two plugs are left in position
until another indicator falls, signifying that the subscrib-
ers connected have rung off ; the two plugs are then
pulled out and dropped in their sockets.
The learner sees every variety of this simple operation,
and, hearing through her head telephone the demands and
replies of subscriber and operator, soon acquires an intel-
ligent idea of what is going on. In a large system like
that of New York she has a good deal to learn, as out of
the hundreds of thousands of telephone connections made
every twenty-four hours only a small minority are the
simple connection described above, beginning and ending
in the same exchange. Subscribers talk all over the city,
and, indeed, all over the country, so the operator has to
learn the position of the various wires that lead from one
exchange to a dozen others, and to the suburban and long-
distance switch-boards. She must be able to connect,
say, a Cortlandt subscriber not only with other Cortlandt
numbers, but with numbers in Broad, Spring, Eighteenth
St., Thirty-eighth St., Harlem, Westchester, Yonkers,
Brooklyn, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago
or any one of a thousand other exchanges, and she must
be able to start the connection in the right way without
an instant's loss of time.
Of course, to reach this point takes long practice, and
166 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
our learner has to acquire the many details by degrees.
After a period of instruction and observation, which gen-
erally lasts a month or so, she takes a turn at night duty
under the wing of an experienced operator, and so gets to
a practical knowledge of the work. After about three
months' careful tuition and training of this sort, with
coaching from an old hand, a beginner is usually qualified
to take a position at the switch-board where the work is
light, and is then enrolled as a regular operator. After
that her future is in her own hands, and her progress
depends on the rapidity with which she acquires sufficient
knowledge of the details of the work to become an expert
capable of handling a busy position, where calls for all
points of the compass rain in thick and fast from 9 to 5
o'clock every working day. Application, coolness, pa-
tience and quickness will soon bring the operator who has
properly mastered the rudiments of the work to this
point.
As vacancies occur in the day force, the most compe-
tent night operators are transferred to day work, begin-
ning at first with light positions, and working up gradually
to the busier positions intrusted to the more expert opera-
tors. What are known as "trunk " positions, where the
operation of the trunk lines that join the different
exchanges together is controlled, require the most expert
operating. A steady stream of traffic flows here from
morning till night, and it requires coolness of head and
quickness of ear and eye to keep pace with the rapid-fire
demand for connections that pours along the lines through-
out the business day.
From the ranks of the regular operators promotions
are made through the grade of senior operator to super-
visor. The supervisor has general charge of a certain
section of the board, watches the work of the operators
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 167
in her division, helps out any one of them who gets into
difficulties, secures strict attention to the work from all
hands, and preserves discipline and order. At each division
of the board the most competent regular operator is
appointed senior operator, and the senior operator takes
charge when the supervisor is away.. The next position
to supervisor is assistant chief operator, of whom there
are several in a large exchange, working under a chief
operator, which is the highest position in the operating
force, except that of the manager of the exchange, who is
the captain of the ship and belongs to the sterner sex.
The chief operator has general charge of the whole oper-
ating force of an exchange under the direction of the
exchange manager, who is responsible for the efficiency of
his exchange to the superintendent of traffic.
From this brief sketch it will be seen that the budding
telephone operator has quite a scope for advancement.
She is taught her profession by her employers, who pay
her a salary while teaching her the work. She can then
become a night operator, a day operator, an expert sub-
scriber operator, a trunk operator, a senior operator, a
supervisor, an assistant chief operator, and finally a chief
operator, the executive officer of the exchange. An
increase of salary goes with each promotion, until finally
a respectable figure is reached.
The comfort of the operators is well looked after.
The hours of duty of the day force are from 8 o'clock to
6, and of the night force from 7 o'clock to 7. The day
operators have a half-hour relief for luncheon, and an
extra relief of about twenty minutes in the morning and in
the afternoon, so that the periods of actual duty at the
switch-boards are well broken up. The night operators
have three hours' relief during the night. At every ex-
change commodious quarters are provided for the operators,
i68 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
consisting of a well-fitted cloak-room, a dining-room and
a reading-room, with generally a sick bay for the accommo-
dation of those temporarily indisposed. In the dining-
room, which is in charge of a matron, tea and coffee, boil-
ing water, etc., are supplied to the operators free of charge.
The reading-room is provided with magazines and daily
and weekly papers, so that the time of rest need hang
heavily on no one's hands.
The regular operating force is drawn on frequently
nowadays, so refined are the subdivisions of the telephone
service becoming, to supply operators for the numerous
branch exchanges that have lately sprung up all over New
York. So large is the use of the telephone service in
many offices and buildings that no arrangement of lines
ending in single telephones can adequately deal with it.
The remedy is found in the branch exchange, a reproduc-
tion on a small scale of the regular telephone exchange.
A small switch-board is installed in the premises and con-
nected by a number of lines to the nearest main exchange,
and from the small switch-board branch out lines to the
different offices or departments to be served. Of course,
the switch-board needs an operator, and naturally the best
operator to get is one familiar with the working of the
general system. So all over New York you will find
branch exchanges, in large offices of all kinds, in banks,
hotels and apartment-houses, where the switch-boards,
which deal with a prodigious amount of telephone service
every day, are presided over by a deft and trim graduate
of the New York Telephone Company's traffic depart-
ment.
HERBERT LAWS WEBB.
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 169
PAY OF TELEPHONE GIRLS.
TELEPHONE girls are not well paid. The reason is
that the duties are easily learned, the work is not
arduous, and there are many applicants.
At first a girl receives $3 a week, as a rule, and some-
times there is a gradual rise to $6 or $8, but the salary is
never increased suddenly or rapidly. The average pay is
about $5 a week.
For those women who supervise the labours of a force
of telephone girls the weekly salary may be as large as
$15, although few command more than $10 and $12 a
week.
The hours of work are irregular, because the girls
relieve one another in much the same way that policeman
do. There is little doubt that the sentiment in favour of a
movement for shorter hours is growing. Girls of a ner-
vous temperament find answering calls and " Introducing
callers " trying work, and the nervous tension is not les-
sened by the steel band worn on the head.
CLERKSHIPS IN PUBLIC OFFICES.
Many of Them Now Filled Only after Civil Service
Examinations.
THE public offices in cities, State capitals and Washing-
ton give employment to many women as clerks, stenog-
raphers, accountants, etc. Salaries range from about
$500 a year to $1,200. Appointments were formerly due
almost entirely to political influence. To a certain ex-
tent they are now made largely on merit, although there
170 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
is sometimes room for influence, all other things being
equal.
Civil Service rules can be obtained from the heads of
departments or the Civil Service commissions. There is
always a mass of information on this point in " The
Tribune Almanac " in each year. Seekers for appoint-
ments may obtain some needed information from that
source.
In New York City there is a semi-annual examination
for clerkships. In 1897 fifteen out of the twenty-eight
junior clerks appointed were women. There are also
matrons to be chosen for some of the public institutions.
Applications should be made in one's handwriting to the
Secretary of the Civil Service Commission, New York
City, and the proper blanks for an application will be
returned. Each woman is also required to furnish certifi-
cates from four reputable citizens who believe that she is
fit to enter the Civil Service. The secretary notifies ap-
plicants of the hour, day and place of the examinations.
No one who falls below an average of 70 per cent, or who
receives " o " on any subject is placed on the eligible
list.
When vacancies occur, the three names having the
highest average are sent to the officer having the power
of appointment. If two have the same average, priority
of application is considered.
The complete code of Civil Service rules in each city
and State is not difficult to obtain. In the case of
United States Government positions, the applicant may
find it convenient to ask for the rules through the
Member of Congress from the district in which she lives.
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 171
WOMEN IN POST-OFFICES.
Clerks, Carriers and Postmistresses. — Women Are Strongly
Represented in This Branch of the Government Service.
IN the New York City Post-office a number of women
clerks are employed, and the places they hold offer good
salaries and pleasant work. In the stamp department
are two women. They are the only ones of the female
force who come in contact with the general public. All
the others have purely clerical places.
Eight women have desks in the money-order depart-
ment.
Five are employed in the inquiry department, where
missing letters and packages are traced, Dead Letter
Office matter dispatched and stray letters sent to their
right destinations. Singular mental vagaries elect that a
certain number of letters each year shall be posted with
some portion of the address lacking. Every year just so
many absent-minded correspondents neglect to write the
street and number, the name of the town or State, on
their envelopes. All of these letters go to the inquiry de-
partment, some to have the address completed, and the
more hopeless to be sent to the Dead Letter Office at
Washington.
In the mail inspection and rating department, two out
of thirteen clerks are women. Their business is to exam-
ine mail matter prepaid at less than regular rates, pack-
ages of doubtful grade, and suspicious matter of every
description.
Besides these regular clerkships, several places as
stenographers and typewriters are open to women.
All the sub-stations of the New York Post-office em-
i72 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ploy women clerks, and these are sworn into the postal
service in the usual manner. They do not take the Civil
Service examination, but are hired by the superintendent
of the sub-station, who is responsible for their good
behaviour and competency.
The women in the main Post-office must be eighteen
years old, citizens of the United States, and sufficiently
well educated to pass what is known as the Second Grade
Civil Service examination. This is rather less difficult
than the one required for admission to the Depart-
ment in Washington. It is the same as taken by men
clerks and letter-carriers, and includes spelling, simple
arithmetic, letter-writing, penmanship, copying from plain
copy, geography of the United States, and reading
addresses. This last consists of reading at sight twenty-
five cards on which are written names and addresses.
Speed and accuracy are equally counted in marking this
exercise.
Appointments are made by the Postmaster with the
approval of the Postmaster-General. The appointee first
enters the service as a supply for a sick or absent clerk,
and takes her permanent place as a vacancy occurs.
The hours are from 8:30 A. M. to 5 P. M., and the sal-
aries range from $600 to $1,200 a year, according to the
work and the length of service.
Removal from the Civil Service is only for cause, and
Post-office clerks usually hold their places a long time.
This is apparent from the fact that in the last seven years
not more than five appointments have been made in the
New York office. One woman has been at her desk in
the inquiry department for twenty-five years.
In other cities and towns of the United States the post-
office force almost always includes a certain number of
women clerks.
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 173
The Chicago office employs no less than 118, four of
whom are coloured.
In the smaller cities women not infrequently have entire
charge of the stamp department, and even the registered-
letter and money-order departments. As a rule, they are
paid as well as men in similar places.,
In the country districts postmistresses are nearly as
common as postmasters.
There are a few dauntless women who carry the mail
from one stage station to another through all the storm
and shine of the year. Miss Louisa Marcome has for
four years made two trips daily between Curtisville and
Stockbridge, Mass. She carries passengers as well as
mail, and manages an express business at Curtisville.
Miss Olive Oakes carries the mail between North
Egremont and Great Barrington, Mass., a distance of six
miles. As she lives half-way between the two villages,
and is obliged to make two trips every day, this young
woman is kept going almost constantly. Miss Oakes's
father had the mail contract, and she took it up during
his illness, and has continued it since his death.
Mrs. Joseph Schwartzenberger travels four times daily
between Hicksville, Penn., and Jericho, two miles distant ;
and Mrs. George Schimmel has the route between Hicks-
ville and Plainview, making one round trip every day.
These country mail-carriers appear to enjoy their work in
spite of its hardships and the smallness of the pay, in
most cases less than $100 a year. Sometimes the stipend
is increased by carrying freight and passengers. The
appointment of postmistresses and mail-carriers is made
in the Department at Washington.
C. VAN COTT.
i74 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
CLERKS WHO HAVE RISEN.
THERE are clerks who might have risen, and many who
have actually done so. The idea upon which the Stand-
ard Oil Company was founded, and by the successful use
of which other men afterward became rich, was thought
of and wrought out first by a private secretary, who did
not have the confidence to undertake the scheme. He
was one who might have risen. To practical people, men
or women, who are serving in a business house, a good
idea often occurs, which is of substantial advantage to the
business, and a few such happy thoughts will take any
clerk from an inconspicuous position and result in pro-
motion, sometimes even in an offer of a partnership,
sometimes in establishing the clerk in business for himself.
The majority of men and women must begin their ca-
reers as clerks or employees, with no special responsibility
beyond the duty of performing their daily tasks con-
scientiously and well. In all the great railroad and other
corporations, in real estate, brokerage and banking offices,
and in thousands of other lines of business, most of the
successful operators on thair own account, or highly paid
officials, began in the role of simple clerks.
There is a case in Chicago of a woman who was first
the clerk and later, by reason of her sound, good sense
and energy, the business assistant of a prosperous man of
business. She had the good fortune to win the regard of
her employer to such an extent that he left her his entire
fortune at his death a few years ago, and she is now be-
coming known as one of the leading philanthropists of the
city. Few women clerks can hope to inherit their em-
ployer's fortune. That is too much to expect. It is not
every business man who is so entirely alone in the world
CLERKS AND OPERATORS. 175
that his trusted clerk and business assistant is the one
finally selected as the most worthy heir. Yet there is a
point which it will do no harm to bear in mind, that clerks
whose services are actually valuable to the business are
often remembered in the wills of their employers. A
noteworthy case was that of Henry L. Pierce, of Boston,
who died not long ago and gave handsome sums of money
in his will to all his principal and most useful employees,
sums sufficient in several cases to set a man up in business.
However, it is not advised that any clerk shall expect
any material advantage in this direction. A woman may
sometimes marry her employer, but she will do better in
the long run and in the majority of cases to make herself
valuable to the employer, and by her intelligence, interest
in the business, economy and suggestiveness aid to make
the business go. Promotion to places of responsibility,
good salaries and opportunities for investment come in
that way, and these are practically far more important in
most cases than anything else.
Opportunity comes to clerks who are on the lookout
for it, and a subordinate position will be occupied by a
beginner only as long as she is fit for nothing else.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS.
WOMEN PASTORS.
One of Them Possesses the Title of D. D.— There Are Many
Women Pastors and Some Distinguished for Tact as
Well as Eloquence.
IN a recent magazine article the Rev. Anna Shaw gives
some interesting data concerning woman's work in the
ministry and her particular fitness for this kind of work.
Although statistics are, of course, incomplete on the
subject, it appears that the society having the greatest
number of women pastors or preachers is that of the
Friends, a denomination more strict in all matters of
Church discipline than almost any other, although perfect
equality among its men and women preachers is and
always has been maintained. Another thing noticed about
the Friends is that the proportion of men to women in
their congregations is greater than in any other Church.
One of the first women to be ordained as a minister was
the Rev. Lydia Sexton, who belonged to the United
Brethren, and she began her work in 1851, continuing it
most actively until 1890. Another of the pioneer women
in this field was the Rev. Antoinette Brown, since married
to Mr. Blackwell. She was graduated from a theological
school in 1850, but was refused ordination. However, she
preached wherever opportunity offered, and in 1853 was
ordained by the Congregational denomination in New
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 177
York State, and engaged actively in church work for
many years.
Mrs. Brown-Blackwell is at present living in New York
City, and, although her active career is about over, her
presence is always at the command of any needy cause.
At the present time the Congregational Church has
something over thirty women regularly ordained in its
ministry, among the more prominent of them being the
Rev. Annis Ford Eastman, who is assistant pastor of a
church in Elmira, N. Y.
In the Baptist denomination there are few ordained
women preachers, although many women have worked
successfully in evangelistic work in this Church. Chi-
cago, Pittsburg, Kansas, Nebraska and Michigan have all
women ministers in Baptist churches. While the rules of
the Presbyterian Church strictly prohibit women from
ordination, and even go so far as to forbid ministers
inviting women to speak in their pulpits, a law which is
ignored very often, now that Miss Briggs has so recently
been graduated at the head of her class in Union Semi-
nary, something may be done to modify this rule, bringing
it in closer conformity with public opinion on the subject.
Besides Miss Briggs there are fourteen other women
students in the theological department of Union.
The only woman who ever received the title of D. D.
is the Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, who began preaching in
1859, being regularly ordained by the Universalist Church,
which has always opened its doors wide for the admission
of women into full fellowship. She was graduated from
both Lombard and Michigan universities, and in 1893 the
former conferred upon her the honour of the D. D. degree.
Besides holding a number of pastorates, she has been a
wide lecturer, and was chairman of the Woman's General
Committee of Religious Congresses at the World's Fair.
178 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
The Universalists have fifty-seven ordained women at
present, among them being many gifted speakers.
The Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, born a Quaker, but
induced by Miss Brown to enter the field of church work,
was ordained in 1868, and since that time has filled a
number of pulpits.
Among the other churches in the country under the
pastorate of women is the People's Church of Kalamazoo,
Mich. Caroline Bartlett Crane, who was ordained in
1889, at once took charge of this church, and since that
time a $35,000 building has been built, free from any
debt. Meetings are held every day, and the church sup-
ports a free kindergarten, a school of household science,
a gymnasium and a manual training school.
Two young women who completed their studies in Ox-
ford, England, the Rev. Marion Murdoch and the Rev.
Florence Buck, have jointly the charge of Unity Church,
Cleveland, Ohio. This church also has a free kindergar-
ten, a loan library, mothers' classes, boys' clubs and many
study and sewing classes.
In the Methodist Protestant denomination several wo-
men have been ordained, among them Mrs. Anna Howard
Shaw, who enjoys an enviable reputation both as a preacher
and a lecturer. She is a graduate of the Boston Univer-
sity, and was at first refused ordination by the New Eng-
land Conference, but in 1880 was ordained at Tarrytown,
N. Y.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has never ordained
women as ministers, although it has gladly availed itself
of their work in its missionary and evangelical fields, hav-
ing many brilliant speakers in that work, whose good
deeds and efficient labours are not excelled anywhere.
The first time the marriage service was performed in
Massachusetts by a woman preacher — the Rev. Olympia
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 179
Brown, belonging to the Universalist Church— the legality
of the proceeding was questioned, and finally had to be
settled by the Legislature of that State.
Mrs. Shaw regrets the lack of cordiality shown to
woman in her work in the pulpit, as she has so thoroughly
shown her fitness for the work. She says the restraint
in manner and the lack of generous support, due to old-
time prejudice, react on the women when they under-
take the work, and in consequence they feel hampered,
often not being able to do their best.
So far as my own experience is concerned, I have met
with the most cordial and hospitable treatment in the
Universalist Church, where ordained women do indeed
occupy a position of equal dignity and power with or-
dained men.
The only time I am ever conscious of being a " woman
minister " is when I wander into some church fold where
the women are considered fit to bear the heavy burdens
of church work, but unfit to exercise the right to vote or
to claim the privilege of ordination.
As an example of how women, when allowed to join
heartily in the work, succeed, note the world-famed work
of women in the Salvation Army, where both Emma
Booth-Tucker and Maud Ballington Booth have had joint
command with their husbands. And as it is conceded
that the great number of church goers and church mem-
bers are women, it would most certainly seem that in the
quiet ministration of the pastor women could be fully as
able to reach the hearts of their parishioners and to give
to them aid and comfort, which have come to be as much
a part of the ministerial duty as sermons.
Woman takes naturally to the spiritual side of life ;
child-training and mind culture seem her special work,
and in the Sunday-school and evangelical work of the
i8o WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Church she has been doing her part from the beginning of
the Church. The future will enlarge her scope and open
the pulpits of all denominations to her.
The ministry is one of those fields of effort where the
characteristics of patience, tact, trustfulness and, above
all, love are in demand, and where women seem peculiarly
fitted to perform a much-needed work. I believe that
the ministry is the broadest, loftiest field on earth for the
exercise of noble and helpful characteristics. No field
furnishes so great an opportunity for reaching all classes,
all ages and both sexes with the gospel of purity, honesty
and equality for which the world is famishing.
The minister is called into the very heart of the home
in those most sacred experiences of birth, marriage and
death, when hearts are tender for the sowing of good
seed, and the minister who can be untrue to such a trust,
careless of such an opportunity and unappreciative of
such a privilege — well, I do not know what manner of
man he could be. I do know that he could never be a
woman.
ALICE K. WRIGHT.
GIRL DISCIPLES OF GALEN.
How to Become a Physician.— Woman no Longer a Stranger
in Medicine.
OF the many occupations to which women have recently
been admitted, in none is there a greater demand for her
services and in which she has more proved her ability
than the medical profession. The path is not always
smooth ; there are ruts to be avoided, temptations resisted
and mountains to be climbed ; but everywhere we find
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 181
bridges erected and stepping-stones placed by those who
have led the way.
To-day, at least in our larger cities and towns, there is
no novelty about the presence of a woman physician and
no question about her rights. She is admitted to the
medical societies on an equal footing with her professional
brethren, and her services are demanded by law in many
institutions for women and children.
Women physicians are found in office and general
practice. They are in the missionary field at home and
abroad — in China, India, Persia, Japan, Burmah, Syria
and Egypt. They are in attendance at the leading schools
and colleges for women. They are on the lecture plat-
form and in working girls' clubs, asylums and prisons,
and wherever they can aid and alleviate.
These conditions have been made possible through the
endeavour of the pioneer women in medicine, who so
valiantly championed their cause and, proving its justice,
opened the way for the march of progress. To them we
owe a reverence and gratitude deeper than we can appre-
ciate. They founded our medical colleges and hospitals
and maintained them.
There is now no dearth of schools where a woman may
receive a medical education. The Woman's Medical
College of Pennsylvania (the first medical college in the
world regularly organized for the education of women for
the medical profession) was founded at Philadelphia in
1850. In 1865 the Woman's Medical College of the New
York Infirmary was established in New York City. Women
are now received at medical schools in Chicago, Baltimore,
Syracuse, Buffalo and Cincinnati, and at Johns Hopkins
University and the Universities of Michigan and Cali-
fornia.
Candidates for matriculation must be at least eighteen
i82 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
years old. In all schools they are required to present
evidence of a preparatory education before entering the
special department of medicine. A degree of arts from a
school of standing or a Regents' certificate from the
University of New York will be accepted in lieu of an
entrance examination, and in some schools a teacher's
certificate from a county superintendent of schools will
exempt the applicant from an examination, provided that
it embraces Latin, algebra, physics, arithmetic and Eng-
lish. The course in colleges of equal standing covers a
period of four years (eight months each), and the instruc-
tion includes lectures, recitations, laboratory, chemical
and practical work. An average of $150 will cover the
annual expense for matriculation and lecture tickets, in-
cluding dissecting material and admission to the labora-
tories. Board can be obtained at rates according to the
pecuniary resources of the student and her requirements,
from $4.50 a week upward.
Among students many are found who have earned
their way by previous occupations, teaching, nursing, etc.
Some begin their medical career by taking a course in
a training school for nurses, and later utilize this profes-
sion to earn money during summer vacations.
Having attended the required course and passed all
" final " examinations, the student becomes a candidate
for graduation and the degree of Doctor of Medicine is
conferred.
It is greatly to be regretted that there is no uniform
law regulating the practice of medicine in the United
States. In order to secure a license and become regularly
registered in some States, an examination is demanded ;
in others a diploma from a chartered medical school is
sufficient.
During the required four years of college work much
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 183
practical experience has been gained, but it is very desir-
able to seek and obtain a hospital appointment ; and com-
petitive examinations are now open to women in many of
the largest and best-equipped hospitals. There is no
salary paid to a hospital interne, during a service which
varies from six months to two years. Board and lodging
are provided, but further than this the benefit received
from the hospital experience is deemed a full equivalent
for the time and labour.
In general practice few physicians acquire an income
from their profession sufficient for support until after at
least two years' effort. Much depends upon the oppor-
tunities offered, as well as the ability and personality of
the individual.
A number of women physicians are reported as hav-
ing attained a professional income of $10,000, $15,000 and
even $20,000 a year. Even when fully established, the
amount must necessarily be influenced by location and
climate.
Success in the medical profession cannot be based
upon financial results alone. We remember Dr. McClure
and the famous surgeon from London, and question the
success and glory of either.
From these statements the inference must not be drawn
that every woman in the medical profession has been, can
or will be successful. In this, as in other professions,
there is strong competition, which must result in a " sur-
vival of the fittest." Before attempting to " pass the
Rubicon," one should consider earnestly the responsi-
bilities that lie beyond, and decide upon her personal
fitness to cope with the work. To the hesitating, let me
say, there may be a latent strength awaiting development
and not discerned by the nearest and dearest.
No one can read your heart and interpret the motives
184 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
prompting you to enter this particular profession, and
though kindly counsel is advisable, the responsibility of a
decision must rest with you alone. A physician's life is
one of varied experiences and plentifully interspersed
with hours of discouragement and anxiety. It is one of
increasing responsibility, and the burdens of others will
add weight to your personal griefs, and must be borne
with equal dignity and silence. It is, too, a life of
endeavour and hope, and when the pain has been eased, the
load lifted or the way made brighter for a suffering one,
it becomes a life of gratification and joy.
SARA J. WILLIAMS-VANDERBEEK.
THE FIN DE SIECLE PORTIA.
She Must Be Persevering and Really Learn Law. — Then the
Aspirant Has Plenty of Chances to Succeed.
WHILE the woman physician has become a recognised
factor in the professional world, such a position can
hardly be claimed for women in the law ; but if the
standard of mental fitness and capacity, instead of mere
money success, is allowed her, a decided victory has been
signallized even in this comparatively short time. It is
not a decade since colleges and universities in New York
State began graduating women from their law schools ;
and scarcely a score of years have passed since women
began storming this last citadel of the learned professions.
Yet the number now in the profession has mounted into
the hundreds. Whether there is, in a material sense, a
rich harvest awaiting women generally in this field has
hardly been proved, but, if so, there is at least no easy
reaping, and the number for whom it has been even a
" bread and butter " success are few.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 185
The social complications of the woman lawyer's posi-
tion are also unique. The woman physician or dentist
may have her clientele of women whom she serves to a
great extent in private ; but even though a woman be her
client, the woman lawyer must inevitably be associated
with men, for a thousand to one the lawyer on the other
side will be of the opposite sex ; and in the active practice
of her profession she enters, almost wholly, the ramifica-
tions of the strictly masculine world, in office, in court, in
commerce and business. If she is a sensible woman, she
will expect no favours on account of her sex, and although
the testimony of every woman would, I believe, be that of
almost invariable courtesy and generous welcome from
her brother attorneys, yet the ramparts yield but slowly,
and the law has many delays. Even at this day the
woman lawyer is a pioneer, and only the best work and
keenest sense of duty will be the warrant of her right to
enter the profession.
The choice of the law is, therefore, a serious question,
not only to the woman dependent upon her own resources
for her living, but also to the woman who is ambitious to
make her life count by diligent acquirements in some pro-
fession or art. But whatever may be said of the practice
of the profession, the study of law is one of the greatest
benefits a woman can possibly obtain. There is no walk
in life which she cannot the better fill for her legal know-
ledge and for the enlargement of mind which it brings.
If all women do not practise after studying, it is no proof
that women are a failure in the law, but, on the other
hand, the world is the richer, and her powers for good
greatly increased.
To the study of the law have come women of all con-
ditions and occupations. In the lecture halls of New
York University, open to men and women alike, sit side
186 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
by side clerks from business houses, stenographers from
lawyers' offices desirous of enlarging their usefulness or
of taking up a more active career for themselves ; daugh-
ters, wives and mothers of professional men ; women of
wealth and business women, studying for the sake of more
carefully guarding their own affairs ; young college women,
philanthropic women, and women without purpose, with-
out training, without business experience, who have drifted
into the lectures because it is " the thing " to study some-
thing. Nine out of ten of these women will probably
never practise, and this is the same throughout the whole
country ; but all will the better appreciate the work of
those who go on to the front and really enter the profes-
sion. It is in the practice that the romance ceases and
the hard struggle begins.
In this, as in every other profession, there is no talent
of mind or grace of person which does not add to the
chances of ultimate success ; but a good stock of common-
sense, a retentive memory, a logical mind or the ability to
reason well, and great powers of concentration are abso-
lutely essential, or the study of law will be irksome, and
both its study and practice a failure.
There is a great variety of practice in the law, and the
young attorney may choose that department for which her
talents and inclination fit her. She need not think of law
only in connection with court work, for many of the rich-
est and most successful practitioners are never seen in
the courts, and are not noted for their forensic ability.
There have been women who have pleaded successfully
before juries, and others who have confined themselves
strictly to office practice, securing a counsel to represent
them when a case reached trial.
For admission to a regular university law school — and
such a course is always desirable if it can be afforded —
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 18;
the young woman must be at least eighteen years of age,
and must furnish a certificate of good moral character.
She will also be required, if she does not possess a college
diploma or the necessary Regents' certificate, to pass a
creditable examination in English literature, English com-
position, geography, physiology, hygiene, plane geometry
and algebra, and in two of the four following divisions
of history : Greek, Roman, English and American. In
advanced subjects one of the following groups : (a) Greek
and Latin, or, (b) Latin and either advanced French or
advanced German ; or, (c) advanced French, advanced
German and solid geometry, advanced algebra and plane
and spherical trigonometry. She should also, if not a
graduate of a college or university, procure the Regents'
" law-student certificate," in order to comply with the
rules for admission to the bar of the State. She is then
prepared to study for three years in the office under the
guidance of some reputable attorney, or to attend a course
of regular law lectures.
New York University Law School and Cornell Univer-
sity offer the two best courses to women in New York
State. The lecture work at New York University ex-
tends over two years, and the tuition is $100 a year, with
an additional expense of $50 for books, board and cloth-
ing being found according to the means of the student.
At Cornell Univerity a three years' course is now required,
with tuition and books at about the same rate a year as
that already given. At the end of this course, after
thorough examinations in all subjects studied, the law stu-
dent obtains her diploma and the degree of LL. B.
But the young woman is by no means a full-fledged law-
yer. She must yet appear before the Law Commissioners
or Committee on Examinations, appointed by law, to pass
the regular bar examination. This is extremely rigourous
1 88 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
and it will usually be tried, in company with from sixty to
one hundred young men, with perhaps no other woman
present. This test over, she has yet to appear before a
Judge of the Supreme Court to take her oath of office,
and of allegiance to her State and country, and to file her
admission under oath with the Clerk of the Court of
Appeals. Then, and not till then, is she a regular at-
torney, with the right to practise in the courts of this
State.
In other States there are other but similar requirements,
requiring more or less time of clerkship and study. In
Illinois the graduate of a regular law school is admitted
to the bar without further examination. This, again, is
as far as numbers of women lawyers ever go, and it is at
this point that the real struggle and test begin.
If the lawyer has means she may now rent a comforta-
ble office in a central location, and have her name care-
fully lettered upon the door, with " Attorney and Coun-
sellor at Law " subjoined to interest the passer-by. Such
an office in New York City would probably cost at least
$200 or $300 a year. It must be furnished, and this will
cost an additional $100 or $200 if she begins modestly.
It is now time for clients to appear, but if they are slow
in coming she must not be surprised, because young men
starting an office in the same way meet with the same
fate — the trying ordeal of waiting — how long, no one can
predict. It is this waiting, do what she may, that is
bound to try her patience .almost beyond endurance, and
she will question, and question strongly, whether women
have any real place in the law.
It would have been better, perhaps, and much less a trial
of patience, had she endeavoured to induce some estab-
lished firm of lawyers to accept her services either on a
salary or on a percentage of the cases which she is able
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 189
to bring into the office, but this has the disadvantage in
most instances of burying the personality of the aspirant.
She has, however, the inspiration of practical work from
the beginning, and the counsel of experienced men in the
profession. This is the course generally followed by
young men.
Here comes in the trial of her pluck and her tenacity,
and it is to meet the emergency of such a moment that I
would advise every young woman contemplating the prac-
tice of law to make herself master of some line of work
useful to a lawyer, and not to shun the most humble duty
of her clerkship before admission, if it but gives her a
claim to usefulness afterward, A simple skill may
open the door to possibilities which otherwise would be
closed.
All of her future success depends now upon her own
talent, perseverance, endurance and ability to win the con-
fidence of those with whom she comes in contact. Many
things may aid, but the secret of how to win she must be
able to find for herself. She should, however, interest
herself sincerely in all that pertains to women, their social
and economic condition, their clubs, their wrongs, their
weaknesses. She should study, not some particular class,
but womankind in all her phases and needs, for it is from
women that her clientele will largely be drawn, though it
is a fact that many men have no objection to employing
women attorneys, considering them more reliable, tactful
and honest than their brothers. She should set for her-
self the highest standard of work and charge according
to the value of the work done, and not less than men do,
simply because she is a woman. She should believe that
practice comes to her because she has proved her ability
to do work equal to the best in her profession. She may
become a competitor with men in the profession, but should
190 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
not be a menace by doing regular law work for little or
nothing. And last, but not least, she must be womanly.
The most embarrassing problem the lawyer will have
to master, in common with all other professional women,
will be in framing the etiquette of her position, for there
is as yet no social code but a woman's own good judgment
to determine the precise social duties and relations of
those who follow a vocation which places them side by
side with men. It is impossible to lay down any law of
behaviour in this difficult position, but it is worthy of
remark that no woman has ever made a genuine success
in any profession which brought her into daily association
with men who was not thoroughly womanly. The mascu-
line woman who enters into rough comradeship with men,
or is ever on the aggressive or defensive, may achieve
notoriety, but never true success. She who goes quietly
and bravely about her work, who meets distrust with
faithful and diligent service, who is dignified, self-respect-
ing and wise without pretension, tactful without familiar-
ity, feminine without being frivolous, and who, above all,
manifests a kindliness toward those of her own sex, will
rise on solid foundations and do much to level prejudice
against those who will come after her.
The woman lawyer should never lose sight of the fact
that if a new idea be true it is destined to develop and
ultimately to be received of all. If it is money that alone
is sought, the legal profession offers many delays and
uncertainties, much hardship and labour, but if honest
work and honour are sought, the law offers its full share.
FLORENCE DANGERFIELD-POTTER.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 191
PATENT SOLICITING.
A Living in Any Library. — An Excellent Chance of Which
Many Ingenious and Persistent Women Are Already
Taking Advantage.
A LONG period of training is necessary to become a
competent patent solicitor, but, unlike most professions
which require years of preliminary study, this one offers a
living salary almost from the start, in the very act of
studying. The profession is interesting in its variety,
pays well, as it is not overcrowded with proficient mem-
bers, and is eminently suitable for women who desire a
quiet, studious occupation. There is no limitation in the
way of study or profit. The profession is a " grown-up "
school, in which the best scholar stands at the head, and
may demand her own price for her services.
A good preliminary education is necessary. Every sub-
ject ever studied will help in this profession, as patents are
granted for inventions in every art or science. If the
first rudiments of chemistry and electricity have not been
included in the preliminary education, they should be
learned at the earliest opportunity.
Ability to understand machinery is necessary, but it is
not essential to be a born mechanic. The operation of
machinery, from a watch to a marine engine, will soon
lose its apparent intricacy when a sufficient knowledge of
mechanics has been acquired by persevering study.
Among the many personal characteristics helping to
success, accuracy leads in this business.
One of the best ways of entering this field is to learn
mechanical drawing, because not only is this the surest
way of learning to " read " mechanical drawings (a neces-
sary part of a patent solicitor's education), and to become
192 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
acquainted with various mechanisms, but a living can be
obtained by this work. Draughtsmen receive all the way
from $5 to $30 a week in salaries. One of the best
mechanical draughtsmen, if not the very best, in New
York City is a woman, who carries on her own business
and always has more work than she can do.
To be a mechanical draughtsman requires more com-
mon-sense than talent— in fact, talent for free-hand draw-
ing is not essential. The drawings are made with ruling
and circle pens. There are few, if any, places where
women are taught mechanical drawing, and if you cannot
find any, content yourself with the knowledge that it is
far better to learn in an office where the practical side is
seen.
If you have friends to aid you, you may fare better at
the start, but if you have not, do not be in the least
daunted, for one of the greatest blessings is to learn to
depend upon your own efforts. Get a list of the names of
the patent solicitors and draughtsmen from the business
directory of your city. Call on the solicitors first. If
you are a " lady " you will be treated as such. If the
solicitor has a draughtsman in his office, ask if you may
b.e permitted to learn drawing under him in return for ser-
vices in the office. The writer took this course many
years ago, none other being open to her.
If you do not succeed in placing yourself with a patent
solicitor, next try the draughtsmen ; but here it would be
well to offer to pay for instruction for a short time, as
there is generally very little to be done in a draughts-
man's office in the way of services except drawing.
In from one to six months you should be able to trace
and copy drawings sufficiently well to be paid for your
work, and if you are in earnest, within a year's time you
may expect to receive a salary of from $8 a week up.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 193
While it is not necessary to become an expert draughts-
man to " read " drawings, if you are capable of doing
good work you stand a better chance of obtaining a
place with a high-grade patent solicitor, where you can
learn the best practice.
Never draw or copy anything without finding out all
you can about the object drawn. Make this a hard and
fast rule.
Find out where you can have access to mechanical dic-
tionaries and handbooks on all subjects, and make good
use of these books. Learn all you can from others, but
do not rely upon any one to put logic and learning
into your head. Cultivate self-confidence, for if you lack
this quality no one will employ you in this line. Never
leave anything not understood until every available
source of information has been exhausted. Frequent the
libraries where you can see mechanical, engineering and
electrical papers, and persist in reading them until it has
ceased to be a bore, and then continue to read them to
keep up with your profession.
If you start in a draughtsman's office, be constantly on
the lookout for a place in a good patent solicitor's office,
and when once in seize every opportunity to learn all you
can about the business. If you are enthusiastically earn-
est in your work you will always find some one happy to
teach you.
As the work of a patent solicitor in obtaining patents
is not generally known to women, it may be well to state
it briefly.
When an invention is brought to the solicitor, as a rule,
a search is made among existing patents, books and cata-
logues, to bring to light what is known in the art to
which the invention relates. The solicitor then carefully
studies the patents or other references found, and advises
i94 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
the inventor how comprehensive a claim or claims can
probably be obtained in a patent, in view of these refer-
ences, and gives an off-hand opinion as to how firmly
such claims would stand in a court of law.
If the inventor decides upon applying for a patent, the
solicitor writes a description of the invention, which is
illustrated by drawings wherever possible, and drafts
claims embodying what the inventor believes to be his
invention. The entire worth of the patent resides here,
for, no matter how much is described in the body of the
patent, the monoply is granted only for what is distinctly
set forth in the claims at the end of the description.
The real ability of the solicitor comes in here, to draw the
claims broad enough thoroughly to protect the invention.
This description, the claims and the drawing, with the
necessary forms, are filed in the Patent Office at Wash-
ington, where they are examined. If the papers are all in
correct form, and the examiner finds nothing to conflict
with the claims, the case is allowed, and the solicitor's
work is virtually ended. Very few cases are allowed,
however, without one or more " rejections " of some or
all of the claims, on patents or publications which the
examiner thinks anticipate the invention as claimed.
Then comes the hardest work of the patent solicitor.
As the number of patents increases (in the United States
alone they now number over six hundred thousand), the
more difficult it is to draw a claim so as to distinguish it
from existing patents. Moreover, the staff of examiners
at the Patent Office has for many years been inadequate
to the amount of work, and it seems as if the examiners
were obliged to cite any reference with the slightest sem-
blance of similarity, and make the solicitor do the study-
ing and prove by argument that the reference should not
interfere with the allowance of the case.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 195
The solicitor must study all the references cited by the
examiner, judge whether or not the examiner is right, and
redraw the claims to distinguish between the invention in
hand and the references (and here it is necessary to be
able to perceive the finest distinctions between expres-
sions of language) or write convincing arguments in sup-
port of the claims first filed. Sometimes alternative
rejections and amendments continue for years in one case.
Then there are appeals from the examiner's decision,
interferences, where two or more are before the office at
the same time with the same invention, etc., the details of
which cannot be given here.
EDITH J. GRISWOLD.
MISS , SEARCHER OF PATENTS.
The Public Libraries of Large Cities Are Veritable Klon-
dikes for Women of Resources.
ONE woman is known who has made $50 a week during
odd minutes searching patents, translating abstracts,
copying and enlarging designs, tracing drawings and
copying patents for patrons. It is not difficult to obtain
the name of " Miss , searcher of patents."
To go about it, one needs to familiarize herself with
the various records and indices. A few visits to the
library would make a beginning in this, and the rest
could be done in connection with the work. A know-
ledge of French and German would be of great value, as
translations of copies of patents are often asked for. A
translation is worth from $i to $10, according to the
amount of copy, and occasionally the price reaches the
$20 mark. Copies of American patents are never asked
196 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
for, as they can be obtained from Washington for five
cents. The price for an English copy is 10 cents a hun-
dred words.
Copying requires much less carefulness and attention
to detail than searching, but the principal qualifications
for the searcher are faithful attention and patient grub-
bing through many volumes of technicalities. Another
important division of this work is the tracing and enlarg-
ing of drawings, and one is sometimes asked to make
drawings from a sample of the article patented. The
tracing is, of course, simple, but the enlarging of draw-
ings would require a knowledge of mechanical drawing.
DENTISTRY AS A PROFESSION.
Dr. Margarita A. Stewart Gives Valuable Advice. — Much
to Be Done by the Woman Who Proposes to Follow
This Line of Work as a Means of Making a Living.
ALTHOUGH the general public has become well ac-
quainted with the woman physician, it still lifts its eye-
brows in surprise when it comes in contact with her
younger sister, the woman dentist. Nevertheless, the
latter has arrived, and bids fair to rival her elder sister
in the success of her career.
Upward of twenty-five years ago Professor C. N.
Peirce, dean of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Sur-
gery, after a well-fought battle with his colleagues, suc-
ceeded in throwing open the doors of his college to wom-
en. Since that time other dental colleges have opened
their doors, and women are received into their classes.
In 1892 the New York Dental School was chartered by
the Regents, and organized on the co-educational basis.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 197
In the latest catalogue of that school I find this announce-
ment:
Our experience in the training of women for the pro-
fession of dentistry has been such as to recommend them
to enter it. Classes are increasing and applications are
abundant. We are not only willing, but glad, to have
them.
This institution bids fair to become the popular dental
college with women students, not only because of the
facilities which New York City offers for practical expe-
rience to students in the profession, but because of the
perfect freedom from any sense of intrusion with which
women may avail themselves of the privilege of the insti-
tution. Without a doubt this profession is one peculiarly
adapted to the " woman's sphere."
It is work that can be done in her own home, may be
confined within regular hours, and its field of operation is
largely devoted to women. Surely the peculiar graces of
womanhood must come to be appreciated here, if any-
where; the sympathetic nature, the gentle touch, and,
withal, the kindly word of encouragement.
The dental chair, as we all know, is in the majority of
minds the synonym for torture, because to do good work
and render efficient service it has been necessary to inflict
pain. But the days of painful surgical operations are
past, and perhaps it would be interesting to my lay
sisters to know that the greatest boon which has come to
suffering humanity within this century, and which has
made the triumphs of modern surgery possible — anaes-
thetic— was brought to it through the dental profession
by the efforts of a dentist to overcome the pain incident
to the extracting of teeth.
But this was in the davs when dentistrv had iust
198 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
emerged from swaddling clothes in the barber's chair, and
the only thing to be done with a troublesome tooth was
to extract it and replace it with an artificial one. To-day
the dentist is able to save teeth from the forceps, and the
painless way to do this will be sure to follow.
Dentistry, as the profession is now known to be, is
distinctly of American birth, and is yet in its infancy. It
is only a little more than fifty years since the first dental
college in the world was founded at Baltimore. Since
that time there has grown a great system of colleges,
embracing the civilised world, and there has developed a
literature of no mean proportions in the way of textbooks
and scientific treatises on dental subjects, together with a
current literature of upward of thirty periodicals devoid
exclusively to the interests of the profession.
Nor has the birth of modern dentistry been premature,
for with the march of civilisation the teeth of the huir?n
race are yielding to the general neurotic tendency so
manifest on every side. Already the question is being
asked by thoughtful observers, " Are we to become a
toothless race ? " Here in our beloved America, which
has developed the highest type of civilisation in the world,
we see the most rapid degeneration of our beautiful teeth,
which contribute more than any other feature to the
health of the human organism.
Strange as it may seem, the medical profession would
not and does not to-day recognise the importance of this
special feature of medical science. Consequently, den-
tistry as a separate profession became a necessity.
Nevertheless, without a broad, general education in the
science of medicine, it will be unable to meet the necessi-
ties of the case or successfully cope with the situation.
Even then the remedy must be largely educational.
Millions of teeth are sacrificed because of ignorance.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 199
The masses do not appreciate their importance and value,
and know nothing of the possibilities of dental science.
As the generations pass, the bad heredity contingent upon
this ignorance is augmenting the deadly work of tooth-
destruction. Here, as elsewhere, if we would do effective
work in reform, we must begin, as the late Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes so wisely said, with the grandparents.
The children of to-day are the grandparents of the future.
An enlightened public spirit has introduced hygiene and
physiology into the curriculum of the public schools.
Why not extend this department of public instruction
sufficiently to teach these subjects in their practical
application to the care of the teeth ? Such a course would
be of inestimable value to the wards of the Nation, and
its effect would be seen in the marked improvement of a
condition which is to-day our characteristic National
physical defect — bad teeth.
Woman is the natural educator of the race, and surely
this field is one that may well engage the attention of a
woman ambitious for a distinguished professional career.
If she possesses the necessary qualifications for success in
any calling — the capacity for conscientious, painstaking
work and a steady purpose — there is no profession that
offers more promising prospects for a woman than den-
tistry— not even the more popular one of medicine. On
the other hand, it is said that of the seventeen thousand
dentists in the United States many cannot make their
profession profitable, while the dental work that needs to
be done would keep fifty thousand dentists comfortably
employed. This means that the activity of dental colleges
in educating dentists has run far ahead of the education
of the people in the importance of caring for their teeth.
Although it is the infant among the professions, den-
tistry is keeping pace with the more ancient callings, and
200 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
is steadily demanding higher standards in preliminary
education, as well as more time for the thorough training
and education of its students in the special requirements
of the profession.
In the State of New York these requirements are now
fixed by law, and the students of the professions are on an
equal footing.
The preliminary requirements for entering either law,
medicine or dentistry are equivalent to a New York high-
school education. These preliminary requirements vary
somewhat in the different States. The Regents control
the issuing of certificates for matriculation in this State ;
students who matriculate prior to January i, 1900 — the
date for the law to take full effect — may obtain certificates
on a modified scale of the required number of counts.
Candidates should apply to the Examination Department,
University of the State of New York, Albany, N. Y., for
full particulars as to these modifications.
For the woman who proposes to take up the study and
practice of dentistry in New York, the first step should be
to secure this certificate, then to consult her bank account.
If she is so fortunate as to have a hitherto useless diploma
tucked away among her belongings, it is a treasure the
value of which she will never appreciate. If she has not,
and must secure her certificate, either by examinations or
evidence of equivalent work, the test of her ability to
succeed in her chosen profession is upon her at the very
outset. If she succeeds in crossing this Rubicon without
a satisfactory diploma to bridge it, though her bank ac-
count be at zero, she will manage that also.
The time required to complete the course of study is
three years, and the fee for the entire course amounts to
about $500. This does not include the text-books, which
would cost about from $15 to $25. The instruments
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 201
absolutely essential for school work can be obtained for
about $50. However, if the bank account will bear the
strain of an additional $50, the increased facility for satis-
factory infirmary and laboratory work would be well
worth the outlay, and in the end the student would be in
possession of a partial outfit for office work. An addi-
tional outlay of, say, $300 will fully ecfuip an office and
laboratory for the practice of dentistry.
It might be done for something less, the difference
depending upon the amount of money invested in a chair,
which costs from $75 to $175.
When the persistent student has put in three years of
good work, passed numerous examinations, and is finally
approved by the faculty of the school, she is recommended
to the Board of Regents for the degree of D.D.S. For
this examination she pays $25, and, if successful, receives
the degree, and is licensed to practise dentistry. How-
ever, she has not yet fully complied with the law, but must
betake herself to the Recorder's office with these well-
earned parchments, and have them registered, for which
she pays $i. Now she may hang out her sign, with the
consciousness of having fully secured the lawful right to
earn her bread through the frailty of the teeth, upon
which the body healthfulness to a great extent depends.
The investment of something less than $1,000 in money
and three years of time puts into her power the skill for
handling a specialty in which there will be a continual
growing demand for service. How fast it will turn her
way will depend upon her ability to attract and hold a
clientele. Nevertheless, in the end she will be sure to
have a competency if she continues faithful in well-doing.
MARGARITA A. STEWART, M. D., D. D. S.
202 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
AVERAGE EARNINGS IN DENTISTRY.
IN case her circumstances are such that the newly-
fledged dentist hesitates to open an office of her own, she
may take a position as assistant to some established den-
tist. She can easily command a salary of $25 to $50 a
week, working from 8 o'clock to 5, or later if the daylight
lasts after that hour.
Two or three years of this work gives needed experi-
ence, besides which money can be saved to tide over the
inevitable waiting period.
As for the average earnings of a successful dentist, Dr.
Teichman, who has been thirty years in the profession,
considers $5,000 a moderate annual income for a man.
There seems no reason to doubt that a woman can
count on a corresponding reward for her labour.
WOMEN AS MISSIONARIES.
IN the missionary field, at home and abroad, many wo-
men are earning the gratitude of the Christian world by
their valuable services. These women may perhaps not be
classed as members of a learned profession at the start of
their careers, and yet they become most learned in more
than one before their long service is closed. In India,
China, Japan and other semi-civilised countries it becomes
needful for the successful female missionary, whether a
wife or single, to know much about medicine and the
Gospel, and to master the language of the natives, and
with these aids, she enters where a man cannot. Before
her labours are ended she deserves, if she does not actually
enjoy, the title of a learned woman. It is not too much
to say that many missionaries owe to their wives all the
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 203
success which they are able from time to time to report
to the Board which has sent both of them forth. Among
the Indians of our own country and the coloured popula-
tion of the South, women fare the best in winning families
to better ways of living. If the " one-room log cabin "
for these races is ever abandoned for dwellings in which
comfort and morality shall gain a strong foothold, the
result will be due mainly to the labours of women who,
not being members of a learned profession, should, never-
theless, have appended to their names some one of the
titles borne by most of their masculine colabourers. -
HOW NURSES ARE TRAINED.
Miss Sutliffe, Director at the New- York, Explains It.—*
Two Months' Probation, Then a Course of Three
Years.— Pay Is $25 a Week After That,
When Employed.
THE profession of a trained nurse is one of recent
development, and one that is especially attracting refined
and earnest women at the present time. To the sympa-
thetic woman, though one of the most trying of occupa-
tions, the work of a nurse is bound to become fascinating
because of the good it does and the personal confidence
that employment implies. Wages are far better than in
most fields in which women are employed, and the capable
nurse who has gentle and refined manners is pretty sure
to have employment most of the year. Physicians do
most to secure such employment for women whom they
can trust. There are hundreds of young women now fit-
ting themselves for the work.
The New York, the oldest hospital in this city, organ-
ized its training school in 1876. Miss I. H. Sutliffe, direc-
204 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
tor of the Training School, succeeded Zilpha E. Whittaker
in that office in 1885.
The other training schools connected with hospitals in
New York are: Bellevue, established in 1873; Blackwell's
Island, in 1875; Mount Sinai, in 1881 ; the school of the
German Hospital, in 1885 ; the Post Graduate School, in
1888; St. Luke's, established in 1888; the Presbyterian,
in 1892; St. Vincent's, in 1892; the Red Cross, in 1894;
and the Roosevelt, in November, 1896.
In addition to these schools the Cancer Hospital and
the Woman's Hospital have post-graduate courses of six
months for trained nurses. Mrs. Anna M. Lawson, a
graduate of the New York Hospital Training School, is
superintendent of the Cancer Hospital, and was the first
woman ever appointed in this city as superintendent of a
hospital. Miss Frances E. Fowler, of the Woman's Hos-
pital, was the second. The superintendents of the train-
ing schools exercise a supervision of the hospitals, but are
not designated superintendents of those institutions.
In order to obtain admission to the training school of
any good hospital the applicant must be of good character,
in sound health, and have a good common-school educa-
tion. A candidate whose references show that she has
these qualifications may be accepted on probation for a
term generally not exceeding two months. During the
probationary term she is carefully observed, and if she
gives evidence that she possesses the qualities that are
essential for a nurse she is accepted as a pupil.
Among these qualities I regard earnestness as perhaps
the most essential. A woman may be strong, intelligent
and well educated, but if she evinces no realisation of the
nobility of her calling, no desire to maintain a high stand-
ard in it, she would not be accounted worthy of accept-
ance. The nurse must have a fine sense of honour. Both
LEARNED
in the hospital and private practice she wiH necessarily be
the recipient of many confidences, of family secrets, which
she must regard as sacred. She must be sympathetic, gen-
tle, patient.
The invalid may be irritating and unreasonable, and
the nurse may be very weary, but she must not give way
to irritability. She must be tactful, self-forgetful, consid-
erate. Candidates otherwise satisfactory have been re-
jected because of lack of consideration for others. She
must not be absent-minded. No dreamer can succeed.
She must think quickly, clearly, put her thoughts promptly
into action, and control her nerves, or she will fail in an
emergency. She must know how to make her head save
her hands. Of course, the training develops these quali-
ties.
Accepted probationers must be between twenty-three
and thirty-three years old. When accepted as nurses in
training, members of the junior class in the New York
Hospital, for example, receive a monthly allowance of
$10; those of the senior class, $13, and those of the head-
nurse class, $16. Board, lodging and washing are fur-
nished without charge, and in sickness all pupils have
gratuitous care. The nurse, therefore, has the benefit of
a training free of expense, and she is self-supporting from
the beginning.
Classes graduate in March of every year. The course
of instruction extends over three years. It consists in
part of lectures on the general principles of nursing ; the
observation and recording of symptoms; elementary
physiology, anatomy and hygiene; materia medica, mas-
sage, and a course of gynecological nursing. Practical
instruction is given at the bedside on the dressing of
wounds, application of blisters, fomentations, poultices,
cups and leeches ; bandaging and making of rollers ; mak-
206 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ing beds, changing drawsheets and sheets; moving
patient, preventing bed sores, etc. Nurses are held
responsible for the orderly condition of their wards, which
includes the care of linen closets, etc., and in addition to
actual nursing must attend to many details connected
with the charge of patients.
Our nurses serve a term in the diet kitchen, and learn
to prepare broths, jellies, light puddings and other dishes
suitable for invalids. They have a term of emergency
service in the House of Relief, at Nos. 67 and 69 Hudson
Street, which is connected with the New York Hospital.
The hours in the wards for pupils on day duty are from
7 A. M. to 7 P. M. ; for those on night duty from 7 p. M. to
7 A. M. A rest of a few days is always given to pupils
after a term of night duty. One hour daily is also given
for rest, besides one afternoon weekly and half of Sunday.
It has been said that the work of the trained nurse in
active service is so exhausting that a large number break
down, and alarmists have given the limit of such service
as ten years. That this is a mistake is proved by the fact
that many trained nurses who are in excellent health have
been actively engaged in their profession for a much
longer period. Of course, if the nurse disregards the
demand of the body for reasonable rest, if she is careless
of her health in other respects, she will break down, as
women in other professions break down.
In well-regulated hospitals, though the hours are long
and the work is hard, the regularity and system are con-
ducive to good health. The diet is nourishing and sim-
ple ; due regard is given to rest and recreation, and a large
number of pupils in training become stronger during
their term. Women of the leisure class, who had lived
without any special aim, find new interests on entering
the training school, and fancied ailments disappear.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 207
It is sometimes stated that the profession is overcrowded
and that many nurses are without employment. In
nursing, as in other vocations, there is always room at
the top. An unselfish, earnest woman, with pleasing
manners and a thorough training, will find as much work
as she can possibly undertake. The best nurses are fre-
quently obliged to refuse cases on account of their other
engagements. The compensation for nurses in private
practice is $25 a week.
Graduate nurses from several training schools have
written works connected with their profession, which are
used as textbooks.
Bellevue Training School, established in 1873, is the
pioneer school of New York State, and points with justifi-
able pride to an honorable roll of women who have dis-
tinguished themselves in their vocation, and have served
as superintendents of schools and matrons of hospitals in
this country and abroad. Blackwell's Island Training
School was opened in 1875, and the New York Hospital
School was the next in order. Our first class was gradu-
ated in 1878.
Our alumnae association numbers two hundred. Its
meetings are held monthly, for social intercourse, as well
as for the discussion of subjects in relation to the work
and interests of the trained nurse.
The training school endeavours to keep in touch with
all of its graduates. Some have married and no longer
practise their profession. Many have travelled far, but
we rarely lose communication with any one. They want
to hear of the beloved hospital and school, and they
write of their joys and sorrows, their prosperity or
reverses, assured of sympathy and interest from former
teachers and companions. There is a class feeling among
nurses, a love of alma mater, kindred to that which exists
208 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
in graduates of other schools, and to which is due much
of human kindness and helpfulness.
IRENE H. SUTLIFFE.
The foregoing account of the training of a nurse, while
derived from experience in one institution in New York
City, is substantially true of the practice in all other insti-
tutions of its class. The salary paid to a trained nurse in
all the States is about the same, being seldom less than
$20, even in small cities, and seldom more than $25.
Nurses can be found to work for less, but the graduates
of the hospitals and training schools are sure of the in-
come named.
WOMEN AS OPTICIANS.
They Are Now Making Their Mark. — Several of Them
Are Regular Attendants at Conventions.
THE American Association of Opticians seldom meets
without having present several women oculists and opti-
cians. Among those who took part in a recent gathering
and exhibition were Miss Annie E. Stark, a refracting
optician, of St. John, N. B. ; Mrs. William C. C. Ball, of
Bridgeport, Conn. ; Mrs. Emma Beckwith, of New York
City, and Mrs. L. Beckmann, of Toledo, Ohio.
Mrs. Beckwith says: "Although the thought of becom-
ing an optician seldom occurs to a woman, this field offers
many advantages. In the first place, fitting eyes is a
peculiarly delicate matter, and a trained hand, eye and
mind are necessary. With study and experience any intel-
ligent woman may acquire efficiency. Then, too, the pro-
fession is not crowded.
LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 209
" Before starting to take a regular course of lectures I
advise buying a reliable treatise on the eye and becoming
familiar with the formation of the organ. This will be a
great aid in comprehending the lectures. A good book
will cost from $i to $2.
"As the best teachers are in New York City, I should
advise that a course of study be taken here. There are
1 schools ' where a diploma is given after ten days' study,
at a cost of $25. Gradually, by experience and observa-
tion, combined with natural ' gumption,' a woman may
became a practical optician.
" ' Shall I meet many obstacles ? ' I am often asked.
Yes; there are many obstacles, as in other occupations.
It takes courage, perseverance and patience to get
through. I advise taking a place as a clerk in a jewelry
store which has an optical department, and working one's
way up. One may open an optical shop at one's home.
Many men have done this, and go about on different
days to small towns, having office hours in each place,
where they may be consulted.
" As I have said before, one must be thoroughly in ear-
nest. In this new avenue for women they must gain their
own foothold, in spite of hindrances. There are a few
women physicians who make a specialty of the eye and
ear practice; most of these women, however, are in the
West. Notable among them is Dr. Emma C. Boice, of
Toledo, Ohio. She has supported herself and her parents
for many years in this branch of the profession. In East
Saginaw, Mich., there is another successful woman in this
branch.
" It costs from $500 to $1,000 properly to equip an
optician's rooms. Yet a less pretentious scale would be
satisfactory as a beginning. There are several items of
furniture absolutely necessary, such as a test case, the
210 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
retinascope and a few smaller items which may be pur-
chased for about $200.
" On the whole, I should say that when once started in
the study of the eye one does not want to be contented
with being an optician. The temptation to go on and
become an oculist is strong, and the work can be learned
while one is a practising optician, though a college exami-
nation is necessary to gain a diploma."
PROFESSION OF THE LIBRARIAN.
AN ENVIRONMENT OF BOOKS.
Women Hold Their Own as Skilled Librarians. — Library
Schools and the Prospects of Competent Graduates.
MUCH confusion exists in the minds of women ambitious
to take up library work as to the purpose and organiza-
tion of libraries. This is probably due to the prevalent
idea that it is the love of books that is the making of the
successful librarian. As a matter of fact, the modern
librarian is actuated as little by a love of books as is the
produce broker by a love of grain.
Every library is governed by a body of trustees or
directors representing the institution, society, city or other
supporting power of the library. This body appoints an
executive, called either a librarian, a superintendent or a
director. It is this individual who, in the public mind,
controls the affairs of the library. This head librarian is
assisted in the discharge of his duties by one or more
assistant librarians and a more or less numerous staff.
In a large library this staff includes a business manager,
a bookkeeper, stenographers, pages, electricians, engi-
neers, printers, binders, janitors, cataloguers and attend-
ants. In a small library the staff dwindles to librarian,
cataloguer and attendants, while in the smallest library
all the functions of the above-cited employees are vested
in the librarian.
212 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
As in teaching and acting, the two professions which
claim with library work the largest proportion of salaried
women, the preparation is more or less perfunctory com-
pared to that demanded by the learned professions.
This is natural when it is considered that in either of the
former occupations success for a woman depends more
largely upon temperament than upon a knowledge of any
one of the exact sciences.
The problem which confronts the average parents of
collegeable girls is the vital one of expense, i. e. : Can
they afford to have the girl give up four years' time at
the end of which she will have no especial equipment, or
is it a better policy to specialize without the general pre-
paration to be obtained at college ?
A general answer to this question naturally must be
conditional. In library work the college-bred girl, as a
rule, produces better results than her non-collegiate com-
petitor. The college-bred girl has had more thorough
mental discipline, a more definite purpose, and probably
wider personal experience — all of which conduce to a
desirable poise in the professional woman. Moreover,
she will have a reading knowledge of at least two foreign
languages ; a practical experience in the use of reference
books; an acquaintance with general literature and his-
tory, all important accomplishments of the library
worker. Even while attending college a girl may make
some preparation toward an acquaintance with library
methods by doing volunteer work in the college library.
The young girl fresh from high school who cannot
afford four years at college, and who has decided upon
library work as her future occupation, can follow one of
two courses; she can do volunteer work in the local
library, or enter one of the library schools. These latter
are the library school connected with the New York
PROFESSION OF THE LIBRARIAN. 213
State University, Melvil Dewey, director; the library
school at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, Miss M. W. Plummer,
director, and the school connected with the Illinois State
University at Champaign, Miss K. Sharpe, director.
The Albany School and the library department of Am-
herst College also conduct summer schools. Any infor-
mation as to cost, requirements, etc., 'may be had on ap-
plication to the addresses given. If she does volunteer
work in the local library the girl is called an apprentice,
and her term of apprenticeship may vary from three to
twelve months. She receives no salary, and her instruc-
tion is desultory and rudimentary. Her apprenticeship
will have identified her more or less with that particular
library, and her work having proven satisfactory she may
receive a promise of a place when a vacancy occurs, or
she will have to take her chances with others in another
library. This apprenticeship system is in operation in
most of the large libraries. Some require a preliminary
examination, in others the applicant may qualify after a
personal interview with the librarian.
If she enters a library school she must pass a more or
less rigid entrance examination and apply herself to a
course of training covering from one to two years. Dur-
ing this time she is instructed, largely theoretically, in
the various clerical occupations, and in the use of the me-
chanical and other devices of the modern library. At
the end of that course she is launched as a thoroughly
qualified library worker, her instructors exert themselves
to secure a place for her, and the future seems to smile.
In the profession she is about to enter the library
worker will find various branches of work, viz., clerical,
executive and special. The former is to a large extent
the only one covered by the training schools. It com-
prises keepers of the library records, copyists and cata-
214 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
loguers. The executive branch includes the librarian and
assistants, and is occupied largely by people of long ex-
perience or of exceptional personal ability. Special work
is limited in scope, and is found only in the large libra-
ries. It is confined to persons of special attainments, lin-
guists, experts in rare books and manuscripts, etc.
The salary of a graduate volunteer worker or appren-
tice will probably begin at $30 and rise in easy stages
until it reaches $40, when there will probably be a long
pause before the next gradual ascent to $50 per month,
the maximum limit for some years. How long a girl re-
ceives a salary which barely suffices to pay for the neces-
saries of life, especially in a large city, depends in a small
degree upon fortuitous circumstances, but almost wholly
upon the girl herself. Her appointment and advance-
ment in this, as in any well-conducted business, rests
upon the fact that she will have satisfied her employers,
and that she will perform the duties assigned to her more
sincerely and more intelligently than any othei available
person.
A training-school graduate, on the other hand, begins
as a rule at $50, while $75 may be considered the average
salary for experienced work. This means that the em-
ployee receiving it has charge, probably, of some special
line of work, and is officially regarded as head of a depart-
ment. The salary of a woman head librarian varies with
the size of the library which she controls. A couple of
years ago there was a woman in the profession who drew
a salary of $2,500, but she married, and the place is now
filled by a man.
The average labouring day for the library worker is
from 9 to 5, and, in addition, night duty from 6 to 9 on
alternate nights each week. Libraries that are open on
Sundays usually have a special staff for Sunday duty.
PROFESSION OF THE LIBRARIAN. 215
There are few holidays, for the custom of keeping libra-
ries open every day in the year is being more and more
generally adopted. Vacations vary from two to four
weeks. The opening for an enterprising girl is fair. Such
a girl will discover that library work is not confined to
work in a library. She will learn that the facilities she
has acquired in the use of indices, encyclopaedias, diction-
aries and her knowledge of languages can be marketed in
the office of the newspaper, the lawyer, doctor or minister ;
in publishing houses, to compilers and to journalists. In-
telligent preparation of bibliographic material can be put
to a variety of uses not strictly within the limits of library
work.
The girl who finds employment in a library realises
that the fin-de-siecle note of specialization has era of
romance. To-day it has developed the reference libra-
rian, the school the map, manuscript, newspaper and club,
Oriental history, Hebraic, science and blind librarian,
besides numerous other variants of the dear departed
custodian of the library of old.
These and other positions in the profession more espe-
cially adapted to women are not the result of training
received in any library school. They can be filled suc-
cessfully only by a woman having the innate qualifications
for the work, gifts beyond the power of schools to im-
part. Lacking these qualifications, she becomes a mere
automaton, a clerk.
The training of a library school fits the pupil only for
secondary or non-executive places in average libraries,
the salaries of which vary from $30 to $75, advance de-
pending upon individual effort. To sum up, a college edu-
cation is desirable for the library worker; a knowledge
of languages and history is essential; specialization is
advisable. The prospects are that women will continue
216 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
to outnumber men in the library profession, because they
enjoy the environment, which is one of the greatest com*
pensations in library work. This weakness, if weakness
it may be called, enables women to consider lower sala-
ries than men would accept, and, having less regard for
money value than men, they contentedly peg away, year
after year, on a stipend which is gradually crowding men
out of the lower ranks of the profession.
ADELAIDE P. HASS.
IN CIRCULATING LIBRARIES.
THE librarian who loves children and who makes a
specialty of the study of child nature will be, I believe,
the librarian of the future. Many of the circulating libra-
ries now pay particular attention to the guidance of the
young in the choice of suitable books. We regard the
public library as the supplement to the public school, as
the former furnishes the readers and the latter the books.
In our East Broadway branch of the Aguilar Library
one-half of the circulation is among boys and girls.
In the last two years we have made a specialty of pic-
ture bulletins for the children. We cut the pictures from
books too dilapidated for further circulation, and from
illustrated papers and catalogues. These illustrated bulle-
tins, mounted on large squares of pasteboard, are hung in
conspicuous places, and the children stand about them in
crowds studying them eagerly. We have posted illus-
trated bulletins of naval heroes and ships; scenes in the
Philippines, in Cuba, in Porto Rico, and from the lives
of famous men whose birthdays occurred in the month.
On the death of Bismarck we posted a bulletin with illus-
trations covering some of the most important events in
PROFESSION OF THE LIBRARIAN. 217
his career. We have similar ones illustrating the lives of
Washington, Lincoln, Grant and Franklin; scenes from
Shakespeare and from the works of a number of authors,
and an illustrated list of books for boys and girls.
All of our books are carefully selected; we have not a
book in the library that is not a good book. Among the
most popular juvenile books Pratt's " American History
Stories," " Grimm's Fairy Tales," " Life of Napoleon,"
"Franklin's Autobiography," Putnam's "Life of Lincoln,"
Cheney's " Civil War," Higginson's " United States His-
tory," "Wood's Natural History," "American Boys'
Handy Book," Coffin's " Boys of '61," " Our Bodies and
How We Live," Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare," " Lit-
tle Women," "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" are in constant demand, and so are Longfellow's
and Tennyson's poems.
Some statistics of last year gathered from librarians
throughout the country declare that the average salary of
new librarians is $650, and that cataloguers receive in the
beginning about $60 a month.
The pioneer library school at Albany is under the con-
trol of the University of the State of New York, and three
others have grown out of it. These are connected with
Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn ; the Drexel Institute, in Phil-
adelphia, and the University of Illinois, at Champaign.
It is commonly supposed that one acquires a wide
knowledge of books in the library. This is unquestion-
ably true of the outside of the book, but the demands of
the work are so exacting and there is so much detail that
requires attention, that few assistants have time for exten-
sive reading and one should have the mind well stored
with knowledge of good literature before entering the
profession.
PAULINE LEIPZIGER.
PICTURES AND STATUES.
WOMEN AS OIL PAINTERS.
A Foreign Education Not Necessary. — Cost of Tuition. —
How the Art Schools Aid Artists by Creating Buyers.
WOMEN have made themselves famous with the brush.
Others in goodly numbers have won a good support.
The purpose of this paper is not to dwell upon the great
achievements of women painters, but to point out the way
in which any woman with an eye for colour and form
may become an artist in oil, and the cost.
It requires as long to master the art of painting as to
become proficient in any other. As many years of study
are necessary, for instance, as to master the violin.
Equally with music, the talent for painting, the desire
for it, patience to conquer the technique and industry,
must exist in the aspirant before she begins to study.
Having made up her mind as to her fitness, the student
should select her school or studio, and settle down to
what may be called, without any desire to frighten her,
several years of pure drudgery.
The first step in an artistic education is to draw from
casts — simply at first — afterward attending to detail.
Personally, I do not believe in working too long in black
and white. The feeling for colour should be cultivated
almost from the first. In the school of William M. Chase
this theory is followed out with apparently good results.
PICTURES AND STATUES. 219
Many other teachers encourage their pupils to attempt
colour along with their charcoal work.
It is no longer necessary to go abroad for an artistic
education. It is not even desirable, unless the student
has a good knowledge of French, because it stands to
reason that criticism filtered througrj an interpreter must
lose in interest and value. How many people realise
that American artists rank with the French and Dutch
to-day, and are acknowledged to stand head and shoul-
ders above the English and German? The best portrait
painter in the world is an American — John Sargent. The
first sculptor, MacMonnies, and the first black-and-white
artist, Abbey, are both Americans. That all three live in
Europe is the fault of their fellow-countrymen. Art
is beginning to be appreciated on this side of the ocean,
but imported art is yet held by only too many people to
be superior to the native product.
Every large city has good schools of art where the pre-
liminary studies may be carried on, including the drawing
from casts and from life and painting from still life and
models. The Art Students' League, in New York City,
has a high reputation as a school, and the number of its
students increases from year to year.
The average tuition at a good school costs from $15 to
$25 a month. It is not desirable that a student should
remain too long under one instructor or even in one
school. Traditions are good servants, but dangerous
masters; and originality is too precious a quality to risk
losing.
From eight to ten years of study may be counted upon
as necessary to the serious artist. After one has the re-
quired training in drawing, it is a good plan to paint in a
private studio. There more attention can be paid to in-
dividual development of each pupil, and the personality
220 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
of the student has a better opportunity to express itself
than in a crowded classroom. A little foreign life is
greatly to be desired, but is no more necessary to art
education than to any other. It adds to one's breadth of
view and general culture, and is so far valuable.
After all these years of preparation, what does art pay ?
In money, not much — the truth must be told. I have
often wondered in what way many women artists in New
York have managed to live ; but live they do, and happy
they all seem to be. Part of this is due to the feminine
genius for living on one's income, whatever it happens to
be. Many women artists earn $500 a year and live on it
prettily and well. A few earn more than $1,000 a year.
Many of them rely less on the sale of their pictures than
on illustrating and teaching.
Comparatively few a,rtists, men or women, realise large
sums from the sale of easel pictures. There is always a
demand for good portraits. Illustrating for magazines
and advertisements pays well. Teaching pays best of all,
and a good artist has little difficulty in obtaining pupils,
as a rule. The usual price for giving lessons is $25 a
month, or $2 a, lesson. The artist receives her class per-
haps four days in the week, reserving two days for her
own work.
Of the hundreds of girls who annually enter the art
schools and classes, small indeed is the number who con-
tinue their studies to the end. They become discouraged,
drop out for lack of funds, marry, take up designing, go
into some other branch of the art, and disperse in various
other ways. But their brief art study has been of great
advantage to them, nevertheless, in educating their taste.
It has been of advantage to the craft also by adding indi-
viduals to the picture-buying public. It is to be hoped
that in time the pictures which adorn the homes of the
PICTURES AND STATUES. 221
well-to-do will be sought in the studios and not as now in
the department stores.
E. M. SCOTT.
For "A Studio for Colour Study3' see "Society Women
in Business"
PORTRAIT PAINTING HARD.
PORTRAIT painting is the most difficult branch of the
art. It demands not only a longer and more arduous
training than any other, but calls for certain special qual-
ifications.
Assuming the possession of talent and the knack of
catching likenesses, the portrait painter must have and
cultivate an ability to read character, thus being able to
give her sitters their best possible pose. An oil portrait
is not a photograph. The latter represents the individual
as he looked at the moment; the former should be a
characterization of the whole man.
The training of a portrait painter includes a more com-
plete study of the figure than usual. The artist must see
her sitter's body under the clothing — a not too easy task,
considering the exigencies of fashionable dressing — and
be able to suggest it, while painting the draperies alone.
Good social qualities are also necessary. The artist
must mingle with the world, especially with the kind of
people who indulge in the luxury of portraits. She must
also have the tact to put sitters at their ease and bring
out their agreeable and paintable qualities.
Almost as valuable is the commercial instinct. Work
must be exhibited and advertised, so far as is legitimate.
The price paid for an oil portrait, life size, is from $500
to $l,ooo. A fair degree of success ought to insure an
222 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
income of from $2,500 to $4,000 a year. This, of course,
supposes that the reputation of the artist is established
and her vogue attained. The portrait painter cannot af-
ford to despise popularity and content herself with dreams
apart from the world. She must be in the world, and
know it, for with it she has to deal.
HELEN WATSON PHELPS.
PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION.
Originality the Great Aim. — A Possible Field for Women
in the Drawing of Caricatures.
IN answer to a questioner asking about illustrating as a
means of livelihood for women, I can only repeat what I
have said to the hundreds of girls who have come to me
yearly for advice.
Your drawing-masters, no doubt, say that you have
real talent, that you have an original way of representing
things and persons, and you yourself add that you have a
genius for hard work. This last is an absolute necessity.
Originality promises success. For in illustration the cry
of the newspapers and of the younger magazines is:
" Give us something new ! "
The lawyer or physician rarely wishes his own son to
enter the same profession, because he himself knows of
the giants in the way. So, I suppose, every woman looks
upon another profession than her own as yielding more of
rose and less of thorn. Possibly by gentle guidance the
former may be increased and the latter become less
evident. There is no thornless way to success in any
line.
In the first place, if you would be a good illustrator in
PICTURES AND STATUES. 223
black and white you must conquer two instruments — the
pen and the brush — and two media — ink and water colour.
If you present yourself at the door of one publisher with
your hands full of pen-and-ink drawings, he will probably
inform you kindly that they are using "wash drawings"
at present. The very next art director you approach will
undoubtedly — if you come armed only with "washes" —
say that pen-and-ink, dashing, cleanly-cut work is what
he is looking for. It will not do to let any opportunity
slip. There are not too many of them.
I well remember my own trepidation when asked to
illustrate at once three books in "wash." I had long
painted in colour, had taught water colour in a college of
fine arts, but had done all of my work in aquarelle — i. e.,
without mixing with white — and these people wished the
work done in body colour ! Such an order was not to be
lost. I set at work with all my might, took my drawings
to a severe critic, paid him $5 an hour for criticism, and
came off conqueror.
But it is better to be prepared. Learn facility with the
pen. Make the line, the blot, the absence of either
expressive. Learn to put in. Learn to leave out. Use
water colour, opaque and transparent, with readiness and
certainty. Thus you will be saved the tears that were
my own portion in this struggle.
I believe there is a field for a higher class of caricature
— that which makes jollity without vulgarity. It seems to
me that the delicate wit of woman is peculiarly fitted to
this field. But, to enter it, one needs a good knowledge
of anatomy and of the costumes and customs of the pres-
ent and past.
She must have no anachronism in the dress of her
characters. It must be correct to the buckle of a shoe or
the hilt of a sword; to the band upon a hat or the size
224 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
and place of a button. These will all cry aloud her know-
ledge or her ignorance. The settings must be in har-
mony. Men like Abbey travel hundred of miles and live
in remote places for months, in order to make sure of
proper appointments for their figures. But, although
work is endless, the study is charming, and the great
libraries afford fine facilities.
An illustrator must have an eye quick to note individ-
uality or eccentricity in the character to be represented,
and must make these felt. She must note characteristic
poses, motions and expressions of people and animals —
for everything in the heaven above and in the earth be-
neath, to say nothing of that which is in the water under
the earth, is expected from her hand.
So, the more knowledge you have, dear Helen, and the
broader and more decided and quick you are, the better
for your success in this line of work.
You must be able to draw from the life, rapidly and
with certainty, and your perspective must not be at fault.
It does not matter where or how you learn all this, whether
in your own town, in a college of fine arts, by yourself, or
in a New York school of art. One of the most success-
ful illustrators of to-day studied — and he studied; there
was no shirking — in one of the New York schools of art
for three years. Then he started out to face the world
alone. That was three years ago. To-day he has $5,500
worth of orders awaiting him.
Having learned the art, you will want work. You must
seek it; it will not come to you. You can send samples
by mail or you can present yourself to the numerous art
directors and await their decision and order. They will
think $5 a good price at first for a small drawing.
Charles Dana Gibson received $2 for his earliest produc-
tions. I shall not soon forget the pleasure with which I
PICTURES AND STATUES. 225
received $15 for three single-figure drawings — my first
money earned in this line of work.
Later you will receive $5 each for the figures in a single
drawing, or you will be paid according to space. From
$15 to $50 will be offered for a drawing of size and con-
sequence. One hundred dollars a page is paid by a few
magazines, and the double page in some of the weeklies
brings from $150 to $200.
Some women sign the last name, thus giving the idea
that the work is done by masculine hands; others are
frank and acknowledge their femininity with the whole
name. It is a matter of taste. The work tells its own
story.
I have gone with drawings to a new door, and have
found tall, robust men sitting in line, each with his un-
mistakable parcel of drawings to be submitted. Such a
sight tends to make the heart feel the force of gravity
very strongly, for a man's work will be taken every time
if it is as good as yours and costs no more.
Too many work for nothing at first, and are so glad to
see their drawings in print that they willingly give them,
in the hope that their appearance will help toward fame.
This is a poor beginning. Art directors know each
other's policies. It will not help you.
Men cry out that women crowd their partially educated
entities into the various fields of work. For this reason I
do not show you a short and royal road to success. Pre-
pare yourself thoroughly, work hard and with intelli-
gent earnestness, and men as well as women will welcome
you to a place beside them.
IZORA C. CHANDLER.
226 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
TALENT FOR SCULPTURE.
It Is Possessed by Many Women. — Practice of the Art
Calls for Some Athletic Ability, as Well as a
Distinct Taste for Design.
THERE is only one reason why women with a talent for
sculpture should not reach the same pre-eminence in this
art as in others, and that is they do not all have the mus-
cular strength and physical endurance which sculpture in
its largest form calls for.
As for the success of feminine sculptors, many women
have all the requisite qualifications. There are too many
well-known examples to leave the matter any longer in
doubt.
Few understand the mechanical process of making a
statue. " Chisel in hand stood the sculptor boy " is less
a fact than a poeticism. The sculptor handles the chisel
only for the last touches, after the marble has left the
hands of the expert workman, been "pointed up," to use
the studio phrase. The first step after the design has
been studied on paper is the building of a suitable skele-
ton, over which wet clay is packed in rude semblance to
the figure to be modelled. If it is a portrait bust or a
small figure, the clay model is made the actual size, but if
it is a design for a monument, fountain, or anything else
of heroic proportions, it is executed first in miniature.
In the clay, or wax, the sculptor creates ; the bronze or
marble is simply a mechanical reproduction of this clay
model. The sculptor uses a few simple tools of wood and
wire, but the fingers are the best and most sympathetic
tools, "and are used more than all the others.
The clay model, beautiful but perishable, is next cast in
PICTURES AND STATUES. 227
plaster of paris, or burned in terra cotta. This is done
by workmen usually under the artist's supervision. The
old Greek sculptors undoubtedly did all, or nearly all, of
the marble work themselves.
The training of a sculptor includes drawing from the
antique and from life, and modelling t in clay from casts
and the nude model. The nude, always the nude ! No
matter what branch of art one expects to pursue, a
thorough knowledge of drawing is absolutely necessary.
I cannot too strongly urge American girls to make
their first three years' study in their own country. It is
worse than folly to go to France unprepared to work
from life. No account is taken in the ateliers of any ex-
cept advanced students.
Six years' work in the schools ought sufficiently to
prepare the young sculptor to take a studio of her own,
where she may work on original models, getting criti-
cisms from masters as she needs them. Her develop-
ment is then a matter of time, ability and opportunity.
Sculpture, as a profession, is somewhat expensive to
pursue, and not always immediately remunerative.
There are as many chances to make " pot-boilers," as in
other forms of art.
Every sculptor must understand the making of casts, as
he not infrequently, in making portrait busts and statues,
casts the sitter's ear, nose or hand. Sometimes he makes
a complete life mask.
The cost of a model for a fountain or any large piece is
very great, but the sculptor is not required to bear it
himself. He submits the design, and if it is accepted
money is furnished him to complete his part of the work.
Lately the art of portrait statuettes has been revived,
and is rapidly gaining popularity. The lines of the
modern figure and the conventionalities of modern dress
228 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
are often charming in a statuette, when they would be far
from agreeable in a statue.
Besides making portraits the sculptor designs foun-
tains, trophy cups, to be executed in silver or bronze ;
doors, mantels, lamps, and, of course, original figures and
groups, pure conceptions of beauty expressed in form
alone. This is the highest pinnacle of his art, the goal
of the sculptor's ambition.
" Have little care that life is brief, and less that Art is
long.
" Success is in the silences, though Fame is in the
Song."
ENID YANDELL.
To the foregoing the following facts are added by the
Editor :
A portrait bust costs the purchaser from $500 upward,
executed in marble. In bronze the cost is perhaps a
third less.
The marble costs from $125 to $300, according to the
amount of work to be done.
A portrait statuette is worth $100, more or less.
For large statues the compensation of the sculptor is
large, and is made the subject of special negotiations.
ROCKWOOD EMPLOYS WOMEN.
They Are Better Than Men in Modern Photography. — Print-
ing and Retouching Confided to Feminine Fingers. —
Only One Trouble, TJiey Marry Too Soon.
IN my long career as a photographer I think I have
proved my faith by my works in employing women in
every department of my business in which they are avail-
PICTURES AND STATUES. 229
able — everywhere except in the handling of large cameras
in outdoor work.
In the first place, women are peculiarly fitted to occu-
pations in which there is much detail. This is in strong
evidence in the sphere of the household, where good
housekeeping is another name for the careful doing of
many little things.
Photography is a mass of detail to which few men are
fitted, and, at the best, are never equal to women. I
might say that men who are good at small things never
accomplish great ones.
Secondly, women are more conscientious in the perform-
ance of all little things, even where men are capable of it,
than men are. Now that the " silvering " of photographic
paper is no longer done to any great extent, and the sen-
sitized sheets come to us in gross packages ready for the
printer, it is no longer " dirty work." But even under
the old auspices I employed a woman as head printer for
nineteen years, and have never had her superior in neat-
ness, quickness and reliability. In fact, her pupil is now
my head printer, and has been for these twenty years.
In photography there is room for almost every grade of
ability, from the simplest work of "pasting " the photo-
graphs, through to the elaborate finishing in water colours,
India ink, etc.
The one trouble we have had is the lack of the idea of
permanency in the work. Almost every young girl goes
into photography as she does into another trade or busi-
ness, as a stepping-stone to matrimony. This is a handi-
cap to their proper education or fitting to the higher
branches of the art.
If a man marries, it does not necessarily change his
occupation, but it is ordinarily an incentive to advance-
ment in his art or work. Women when married rightly
230 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
expect that they are to be no longer breadwinners, and
rarely pursue their occupations with the earnestness and
intensity that they would if the idea of marriage were not
constantly before them.
This, I say, is the reason why there are not more really
skilled women in the higher branches of the art — the artis-
tic work. If they looked forward to their occupation as
a life work they would acquire a skill in all departments
of photography to which men could not attain. I say
this in shame for my own sex, and in thorough apprecia-
tion of our heaven-blest gift, women. I am not a celibate
and am not advocating the celibacy of women, but only
explaining the reasons why I think women are not almost
solely used in photography.
Speaking to a distinguished coadjutor one day, I asked
why he didn't employ women. His answer was, " The
good ones are always getting married."
The departments of photography where intelligent girls
can find occupation are principally in the mounting, spot-
ting and finishing of photographs. Here they quickly
learn the ordinary routine of the work at salaries begin-
ning at, say, $5 a week, and rising to two or three times
that figure, depending upon their intelligence, industry
and memory, for the latter element is a desirable one in
keeping track of orders without reference to the books.
All the work in this department is light, varied and inter-
esting. The hours in my establishment are from 9 A. M. to
5 P. M., with sufficient time for luncheon.
Another department is the retouching of negatives.
This requires some technical skill, which is soon acquired
by one with an intelligent brain and artistic temperament.
Some of the best retouchers I have ever had have been
women ; but here the first-named peculiarity, non-per-
manency, is frequently an obstacle. At the school of the
PICTURES AND STATUES. 231
Young Women's Christian Association, and also at some
of the art schools, Cooper Institute, etc., excellent instruc-
tion has been given in the retouching of negatives. After
a sufficient course of study, from six weeks to three
months, a term in the practical working of a photographic
establishment brings the student tcr a possible living.
Most photographers will loan rejected negatives for prac-
tice, if the negatives are safely and promptly returned.
The criticisms of the photographer should be a sure
guide. Much artistic taste and judgment can be exer-
cised in the work on a negative, and, strange to say, he or
she who can modify the lines of a negative without oblit-
erating them, and who can do a little with intelligence
and judgment, more completely fills the requirements of a
photographer than the one who expends too much and
almost always unprofitable time on the negative in mak-
ing it too smooth and, as we express it, " too puddeny."
Nearly all retouchers now work by the piece and receive
from 20 cents to $i, depending on the quality and size of
the negative. When employed by the week, one should
receive from $8 to $20.
Then, in the office or gallery women find a sphere where
they are unapproachable. In all business transactions
where the amounts involved are not of great importance
I have found that women are the best sellers. Generally
they give the impression of absolute honesty of purpose
and a sympathetic desire to forward the interest of their
client or customer ; and, say what you will, there has
always been on the part of the great mass of people — men
more than women — a certain undefinable hesitation —
shall I call it timidity ? — concerning the facing of a camera ;
and, on general terms, women in the gallery succeed in
overcoming this peculiarity and securing confidence,
especially of children.
232 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Now, as to the pursuit of photography as a business or
profession. Sex has nothing to do with it, although it
seems to me to be a pursuit that is particularly adapted
to women, but must be prosecuted with the same enthusi-
asm, fidelity, earnestness of purpose and study as any
other line of work.
It is not learned in a day, and photographers are not
born, any more than are artists or professional men. To
attain a high excellence is the work of years, embracing
the study of many things. There is no royal road to suc-
cess. After a quarter of a century I every day learn
something new, and each day seek greater excellence.
Photography is not strictly mechanical. It calls for
the best and most varied powers of the best endowed.
I was once asked what my ideal of the photographer
was, when I replied : " The best photographer is one who
is most a Chesterfield in his manners, a Bacon in his range
of information, a Rembrandt in his art, and a small edi-
tion of Shakespeare in his knowledge of human nature, all
blended with the genial humour of Dickens." As sure as
the chameleon reflects the hue of its surroundings, so is
the sitter to reflect in some measure the mood and warm-
ness of the photographer who sits him.
Now, while there is all this in favour of women seeking
occupation in photography, there is one thought which may
not occur to some, and that is the limited opportunities
afforded. One photographic gallery supplies a large
community, and but few employees are required in the
ordinary establishments ; that is, the proportion of pho-
tographic galleries is small compared with any other
business. I employ in the various departments at the
present time from twelve to fifteen women, some of
whom have been with me for twenty years.
GEO. G. ROCKWOOD.
PICTURES AND STATUES. 233
AT THE WORLD'S FAIR IN CHICAGO.
PRIOR to the World's Fair sculpture as a branch of
artistic labour had not appealed strongly to women artists,
but now clay-modelling and working in marble are in-
creasing in popularity among women. -
Seven women laboured on the colossal statues of the
World's Fair buildings and grounds. At the head of
these stood Miss Julia Bracken, who was in practical
charge of the women sculptors and who herself modelled
several famous statues. The large figure of" Illinois Wel-
coming the Nations " was the work of her hands, as were
also the flying figures which adorned the corners of the
Woman's Building and the " Victory " of the Manufactures
Building. Since the Fair Miss Bracken has devoted her
time chiefly to bust work, the most successful being the
bust of Sir Moses Montefiore, the Hebrew philanthropist.
This talented sculptor occupies a studio in Chicago.
Mrs. Low W. Moore, another of the " working seven,"
had her bust of John R. Bensley accepted by the National
Sculpture Society of New York. It was such a strong piece
of work that the judges refused to believe it had been
fashioned by the dainty hand of a woman.
PHYSICAL TRAINING.
GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN.
One Successful Woman in This Profession. — The Royal
Beauty of a Statue Reveals to Her an Excellent
Field of Work. — A Charming Paper
By Genevieve Stebbins.
YEARS ago, when a very young girl, I received my first
deep impression from a statue. The royal beauty, health
and strength, the deep, indwelling vitality which rayed
forth from the marble form, spoke to my very soul, and
seemed a message from Olympus. A message may be a
mandate calling one to her life's work.
The frozen lips seemed to whisper : " Body and aeul
are one in reality, for body becomes the soul's reveal»«nt
and expression. The human soul is continually creative
under law. It takes the formless and shapes it to express
thought, will, love. Go forth into the world, learn the
great laws under which the soul must work, and carry to
others the lessons you shall learn."
I obeyed ; and now I am asked to write down for those
who have heard a similar message the best way to go to
work — that is, the way I now would take, profiting by my
past errors and avoiding useless or dangerous paths.
First, then, a good, clear idea of anatomy must be ob-
tained. The skeleton must be a familiar friend, so that
the X ray of one's imagination can be turned on at any
PHYSICAL TRAINING. 235
moment, and photograph to one's inner eye every im-
portant bone in the body.
Next, you must know how the skeleton is moved and
held in place, so that knowledge of the muscles becomes
necessary.
Lastly, every important organ must be clear to your
mind — the way in which it works and where it should be
held.
A knowledge of medical gymnastics, of Swedish educa-
tional gymnastics, aesthetic gymnastics, fencing and danc-
ing is of primary importance if you would meet a varied
demand, while a thorough understanding of apparatus
work and gymnastic games is often exacted.
But in these days of specialists you can, if you choose,
select only one form, and, by being thorough in that, suc-
ceed as well as if you had many strings to your bow.
For myself, I have selected medical gymnastics, Swedish
educational gymnastics and aesthetic gymnastics, the
latter of which I have arranged after many years of study
of statues, friezes and beautiful national dances. Anat-
omy and physiology must be the foundation of all forms.
My own experience has proved to me that the co-ordi-
nation of muscular motion and slow movement is more
vital and life-giving than rapid exercise. Deep breathing
is of primary importance, and no exercise which inter-
feres with that or changes the heart beat too violently is
wise. Besides practising the profession of physical cul-
ture, I am a lecturer and reader. I have always had to
consider the body as a whole ; and I could not afford to
acquire a great knot of muscle in some one part to the
over-balancing of my vitality and strength. Many schools
require a combination of elocution and physical culture,
and I would advise any young woman with a predisposi-
tion to elocution to combine the two. That they are not
236 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
incompatible I have proved in my own case, for I use the
two about equally. Of course, if you choose the two,
you need not undertake so many forms of physical train-
ing per se. It has been a necessity to my nature to find
artistic expression in voice as well as in body, and I write
this paragraph for those of like temperament.
Women should not practise heavy gymnastics. Their
feminine structure is not fitted for it, and they gain
nothing to compensate for the risks they run. It is my
experience that a woman should not lift her weight from
the floor. The Swedish floor walk, the aesthetic fencing,
dancing, gymnastic games, bicycle riding, moving and
swimming surely furnish enough without making it desir-
able that one should hang by her heels, leap bars, climb
posts, turn summersaults, etc. Dumbbells, clubs, etc.,
are rather too local in their application, but, if varied with
the right kind of leg work, are not injurious, although not
necessary. We do not use them at all in Swedish and
aesthetic work.
And now comes the great question of where to learn
your profession.
The anatomy and physiology can be studied wherever
you are. You will have to go to some city, no doubt, to
acquire gymnastic proficiency. New York, Boston and
New Haven have the only schools with which I am
personally familiar, although no doubt good ones can be
found in any large city.
In Boston the Hemingway Gymnasium, Dr. Sargent,
for varied forms and the Boston Manual Training School
for Swedish work are well known.
In New Haven Dr. Anderson, of Yale, has also a gym-
nasium for women.
In New York Dr. Savage has a gymnasium for varied
forms of applied gymnastics, while the New York School
PHYSICAL TRAINING. 237
of Expression, No. 318 West Fifty-seventh St., teaches
medical gymnastics, Swedish educational gymnastics and
all forms of aesthetic gymnastics, fencing and dancing
included.
A good teacher can earn about $100 a month. But
unless she obtains a place in some college or seminary she
will have to be a specialist in a number of schools and
take private classes and single pupils to make up that
amount.
She needs some lessons in voice culture, for she must
be able to give her commands in a good, clear tone, and
often she must lecture to small audiences so as to present
her work and form classes. Some lessons in primary
elocution are therefore valuable to her.
The personal equation counts in this profession strongly.
A vivid, magnetic presence wins work where a retiring
and timid one would fail. This need not, however, dis-
courage the timid, for generally the work itself, being
very healthy, creates the habit of deep breathing and inde-
pendence. A bold, aggressive nature people always
avoid.
When you make up your mind write to some good
school for its catalogue. Generally lists of boarding-
places and prices are also furnished on request. Get a
letter from your minister and write to the Young Women's
Christian Association to investigate the school you choose.
Then take a long breath, square your shoulders and set
sail for the voyage of life, having for your motto, " A
sound mind in a sound body." Yours in comradeship,
GENEVIEVE STEBBINS.
238 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
A QUAINT OCCUPATION.
One Woman's Clever Notion. — She Finds Patrons Among the
Disciples of Art and Delsarte.
ONE of the best-known characters in studio and bohe-
mian circles of New York is Mrs. Wright.
Fifteen years ago chance threw in this clever woman's
way a costly shawl, which circumstances forced her to
turn into cash. It was a day when a Paisley or an India
shawl was indispensable to the well-bred woman. A
dealer promptly 'paid her a handsome price for her treas-
ure, and assured her that he would buy all of that quality
that she could bring.
A widow with a growing family, sorely pressed for
funds, Mrs. Wright wisely utilized the hint, and gradually
found herself engaged in a unique and paying business,
which she yet pursues with enthusiasm, despite her three-
score and ten years.
With the passing of the shawl as a toilet requisite the
quaint old vender turned to the artists for purchasers.
Artists were not slow to recognise the beauty and utility
of shawls for studio drapery, wall and divan decoration
and model " properties," and more than one painting
exhibited at home and abroad has had a Mrs. Wright
shawl in back or fore ground. The walls of a famous
studio of Gotham are hung with twenty-one shawls
bought of this itinerant merchant.
Safe to assert no pawn or curio shop in New York
escapes the vigilance of her foxlike eyes. There is
scarcely a family of consequence which has not at some
time stored in attic or warehouse one or two Paisley or
India shawls. The vender has the scent of the grey-
PHYSICAL TRAINING. 239
hound, and never ceases pursuit until any given shawl is
in her possession.
Next to painters, she finds her steadiest patrons among
Delsarte disciples, " bachelor maids," and now the society
women, who are going in for the richly coloured shawls
for house gowns. A double shawl is sufficient to make an
entire gown for a large woman. The design in the centre
of most shawls answers for the bodice. When a single
shawl is not sufficiently large, sleeves are made of cash-
mere. The effect is wonderfully rich and becoming.
" I have been buying shawls of Mrs. Wright for many
years," said a celebrated public reader. "I paid her for
one shawl $150, a duplicate of which I saw in a European
collection valued at $400. How she can sell so cheaply
and make a living is a mystery."
Perhaps no society or stage beauty has been more per-
sistently and vainly importuned by artists for a sitting
than this quaint woman.
"Thank you. I appreciate your kindness," she al-
ways says ; " but it's impossible. In General Jackson's
time " And with an old-time courtesy — she is the
quintessence of politeness — the tall, angular form of Mrs.
Wright, with her black gown that smacks of Old Hick-
ory's day, her flaring black bonnet and bundle of shawls,
disappears before the artist can grasp a pencil.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
ART DESIGNING A TRADE.
Hints to the Ambitious. — The Manufacturer Cannot Use
Designs Unless Adapted to His Processes.
HUNDREDS of young women art students have self-
maintenance in view. The majority, however, soon
recognise the fact that liberal self-support by means of
art is possible only to exceptionally placed or exception-
ally gifted women. The others naturally turn to design-
ing.
It is not an unwise choice, because in this day success-
ful manufacturers depend to a certain degree upon art for
the success of their manufactures. Whether the demand
will continue to be greater than the supply depends upon
the careful adaptation of art knowledge and effort to the
requirements of the manufacturer.
There are two classes of professional designers — the
general designer and the special one. The career of the
general designer is the one most eagerly coveted by the
woman art student, because it is much more varied and
interesting ; but it is at the same time the one requiring a
greater amount of technical knowledge than the average
student can acquire in a short course of from two to
three years' study.
The general designer, to be thoroughly accomplished
and capable, must have mastered the whole history of
decorative and applied art in all different periods and
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 241
styles. She must be able to compose decorative designs
correctly and successfully, whether for a carved-wood
wainscot, a marble frieze, a picture frame or a book cover.
If she chooses to confine her efforts to one of these
things she becomes a specialist, and must accept the
duties of the special designer.
As a rule a woman's art education- is not broad enough
to fit her to be a competent general designer ; and, in fact,
there are not so many successful women specialists as
there should be. They have not yet learned to choose
a certain line of effort and pursue exhaustive practical as
well as historical study in that particular direction.
Perhaps the most pervasive idea of design among stu-
dents is that of combining drawings of plants and flowers
into repeating groups, for printing upon textiles and wall
papers. The inclination to pursue this line of work is
natural, because students are constantly surrounded by
wall papers and cloths, and have not let learned to note
ornament in other manufactured things. Then, also,
designs printed upon wall paper, silk and chintzes are
more literal, more like pictures or coloured drawings than
are other kinds of ornament. They appeal to the inex-
perienced student as illustrations appeal to a child.
A great deal of artistic ability can be expressed in de-
signs for wall coverings, but the field is hardly broad
enough to admit every student who wishes to become a
designer. There are countless girl students, and not by
any means an equal number of silk, printed cotton or
paper mills.
It is true every mill must employ a designer, a special-
ist, whose business is not so much to compose designs as
to adapt them. His skill in this makes him indispensable
to the business, and commands a salary of from $10 to $20
a week. He is often wofully lacking in the sense of com-
242 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
position — that is, in the appreciation of the grace and
beauty possible to composition — but he is able to secure
regular employment and that most desirable thing — a
fixed salary.
This is the point I wish to make: That even without
really artistic expression a designer who has thoroughly
mastered the technical difficulties of his particular line of
manufacture — and there are many special lines — can se-
cure regular employment. Technical ability alone is
worth a salary, and if united with artistic ability it is
proportionately valuable. I often ask myself why the
work of a special designer for textiles should be so fre-
quently lacking in grace and artistic quality, and why the
girls who draw and compose so charmingly should not
at the same time be capable of suiting their work to
the printing machine. Either more art knowledge and
feeling are required of the specialist or more technical
knowledge on the part of the student before the best ar-
tistic results come to the public or pecuniary reward to the
designer.
So far, while there has been a great advance in the
qualities of our so-called art manufactures, it seems to
have profited the manufacturer rather than the designer;
probably for the reason I have indicated — that the clever
occasional designer has not acquired routine knowledge;
has not fitted the work to the machine.
If a student wishes to secure salaried employment she
must take a leaf out of the specialist's book ; she must be
able not only to fit her own designs to machinery, but
those of others as well. She must know the capacity and
variety of printing machines; she must learn what they
cannot as well as what they can do, and understand the
economic advantages of certain processes over others.
All this is certainly within the capacity of woman to
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 243
acquire, and yet I know of no instance where a clever and
original woman designer is in regular employment in a
silk or cotton mill producing good designs and at the
same time performing what may be called the drudgery
of the profession. Unfortunately, the drudgery is at
present indispensable to the manufacturer.
It must be remembered that the application of art to
new methods of manufacture is comparatively recent.
Manufacture itself has been forced to meet increased
demands of commerce and has rushed forward, constantly
inventing new facilities, leaving behind its old-time com-
panionship with art. But when even trade and commerce
began to be aware of a loss of value in manufactures by
this divorce the lagging partner was hustled forward and
confronted with new problems and conditions. The mind
and hand could no longer work leisurely and conjointly,
the thought must be expressed by the more speedy
machine. It is this double demand for quantity and
cheapness as well as for good applied art which has
encouraged a sort of amateur design, possessing many
beautiful qualities which as yet — because the application
of them is not yet fully mastered — cannot command
adequate compensation.
It is this condition which must be met by the woman
proposing to make a profession of designing for textile
manufacture.
In other lines of design technical knowledge is not so
imperative. That is to say, a thorough familiarity with
style, based upon a sensible understanding of methods of
application of ornament to material, will go further than
much technical knowledge without style.
For instance, the designer of silverware or metal of any
kind must know how the best effect can be produced upon
the material, but his designs themselves are not so gov-
244 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
erned or hampered by the laws of repetition and space as
when applied to textiles or wall paper.
Beautiful and graceful lines of ornament can be applied
to many things simply as lines of ornament without
special study as to methods of application, and a facility
in this kind of composition may be widely and variously
useful.
I must still, however, reiterate that continuous employ-
ment and salaried ease depend upon special training.
CANDACE WHEELER.
The designer who is employed by a manufacturer is at
present usually a man, although women are now invading
the profession. He is also a very busy person. The
works must be kept going, and new patterns are con-
stantly in demand. If the manufacturer is to maintain
himself against the competition to which he is exposed, if
the works are to run full time and both the operatives
and the proprietor are to make money, the patterns of the
goods produced must strike the popular taste, and orders
must pour into the office of the concern for fresh supplies.
As a rule, the best that a manufacturer can do, after
bringing out a new design, is to gather the cream of the
business during the first rush of orders for goods of that
pattern. Rivals are certain to watch him with the greatest
interest and to follow him in every successful idea. He
must, therefore, when he has once hit the popular fancy,
obtain the largest immediate sale, and then, while not
neglecting future orders for the last successful pattern,
press on toward bringing out a new one.
Designers, men or women, often receive especially high
salaries, but as a rule they are paid from $15 to $25 a
week when regularly employed. There is no trades union
among designers, and they do not therefore always obtain
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 245
as good a price for their labour as engravers in print-
goods factories. The latter are paid from $24 to $30 and
$35 a week. But a really good designer, whose ingenuity
actually brings business to the factory, is certain to
receive special consideration in the matter of salary.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN.
A School for Women. — Women May Readily Learn Practi-
cal Designing, and They Have the Hope of Good
Salaries.
ONE of the most pleasant and at the same time remu-
nerative branches of woman's work is designing practically
for wall papers, oilcloths, carpets, book covers, silks and
all fabrics which contain a pattern printed on or woven
into the surface.
Twenty years ago there was no woman who designed
practically for any manufacturing purpose, or any school
in which was taught the making of actual working designs.
In one or two schools there were taught the theory and prin-
ciples of design — mechanical drawing, theory of colour, his-
torical ornament, conventionalization, balance, symmetry
and so on ; but none taught its pupils to apply these prin-
ciples to the making of workable patterns which could be
carried to the printing drum, the Jacquard loom or dobby
machine and printed or woven from, just as they were,
without being redrawn or recoloured by a practical man.
Even to-day there is only one practical school — Mrs.
Cory's Original School of Industrial Art for Women, No.
159 West Twenty-third St., New York City — where the
making of actual designs, such as are made at the factories
246 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
themselves, correct in every technical detail, can be
learned and the training of professional designers accom-
plished. In a number of schools the simpler designs for
printed goods, such as wall papers, drapery, silk and cot-
ton prints, are taught ; and one or two in Philadelphia
and Boston teach designing for a few grades of carpets.
In Mrs. Cory's school, however, it is possible to learn
practical designing for carpets of all grades, rugs, raw
silk furniture coverings, table linen, Marseilles quilts, bro-
cades, ribbons, swivel silks, blankets, bath robes, fancy
borders and all goods having a pattern woven into their
surface as well as printed upon it.
Twenty years ago Mrs/Cory, having decided to become
a practical designer for carpets, discovered by her own
experience the impossibility of securing the needed
instruction in any school existing at that time, in even the
best of them of that day, Cooper Union. She then deter-
mined to establish for other women a thoroughly practical
school of industrial design, to be maintained exclusively
as such, and she acted on this resolution.
The school has grown and prospered, and is now the
best-known institution of practical design for women in
the world. Pressure has been brought to bear upon
the founder, many times, to extend the curriculum into
lines set by other schools. Applications have been made
for cast drawing, architecture, flower painting, life work
and kindred branches of art ; but Mrs. Cory has said :
" No ; these branches can be studied in hundreds of
schools ; in my school there shall be taught nothing
except design, pure and simple, and it shall be taught fully,
technically, practically to the minutest detail, and bet-
ter than anywhere else in the world." To this determina-
t on she has adhered until to-day this school stands fore-
most as the best and only one in which women can learn
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 247
to design practically for all kinds of woven and printed
fabrics.
We wish it to be understood that this institution is ex-
clusively a school of practical applied design. There are
no side issues, no extras. Those wishing to study draw-
ing from casts, architecture, painting in water colours or
oils, painting from life, can be well taught in all these
branches in hundreds of good schools throughout the
United States. Those, however, wishing to study design-
ing practically in all its branches — for the most intricate
and beautiful fabrics as well as for simpler goods —
should come here, where the profession is taught as in no
other school in the world.
We do not keep our pupils two years on historical
ornament, for that is not necessary ; neither do we teach
cast drawing, for that also is not necessary for a designer
of fabrics, wall papers, book covers and the like, but we
do teach, thoroughly and well, the practicalities and tech-
nicalities of design for all woven goods.
We have been established for nineteen years, and are
known to the manufacturing world, designing for manu-
facturers abroad as well as for those at home. We have
the confidence of these men, who when in need of designs
or designers come to us, feeling sure we can supply them
with thoroughly workable practical designs for any and
all purposes, and competent workers in all branches.
All good training in drawing is a help, certainly, and
for one who has plenty of money and time at her disposal
a long course of several years' duration will do no harm,
and is a pleasant thing to have ; but the pupils who come
to us, as a rule, feel the necessity of becoming self-sup-
porting at the earliest possible moment, and this we help
them to do, not feeling that we have the right to keep
them dragging on, at a more or less heavy expense, for
248 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
years, when they can learn to design well and to do good
work, to obtain positions, and sell their designs in a com-
paratively short space of time.
We feel that with our nineteen years' experience, and
by putting our best energies and strength into this one
exclusive profession, we have perfected it to the highest
degree, and can offer the best possible instruction to be
obtained in practical design.
The pupils of this school graduate with practical
knowledge, and readily obtain positions in the design-
rooms of factories at good salaries, or sell to manu-
facturers designs made at home, receiving full payment
for the same, for this is one branch of woman's work in
which she receives the same payment as is given man for
the same grade of work. Graduates from this institution
now occupy positions in a variety of factories in all parts
of the United States and Canada. Some young women
are employed in the carpet factories making beautiful
patterns for ingrain, Wilton, body brussels, tapestry, vel-
vet and moquette carpets. Others are in manufactories
designing for Wilton and Smyrna rugs. Many have posi-
tions in Paterson, N. J., in silk mills, where they are pro-
ducing designs for elegant brocades, fancy ' sash ribbons,
labels, silk hangings and dress silks. Others again are
working on silk ginghams and swivel silks, one young wo-
man having invented two new weaves during her first
year in the design-room. One graduate is designing for
pyrography and carrying out her ideas in leather. Any
number are working in the pattern departments of shops
where printed goods, wall papers, challies, lawns, ging-
hams, oilcloths and prints are made, while others have
been most successful in the creation of book covers,
Christmas and Easter cards and other dainty novelties
for publishers.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 249
Pupils who work at home and sell their work to the
manufacturers have figured in all the branches of indus-
trial design mentioned above ; and very many more have
worked in stained glass, handkerchief borders, piano
panels, window-shade borders, endolithic marbles and
other fields in which designs are used.
Not only have they designed for American manufac-
turers, but for those of Europe as well. Carpets for Leeds
and York, England ; table linen and towel borders for
Dundee, Scotland ; china for Carlsbad, Austria, and em-
broideries and mattings for Japan — these have all been
made upon designs conceived and sold by the pupils of
this school.
A large number of graduates have become teachers of
drawing and design in other schools, or have established
institutions of their own. The lowest salary ever paid to
one of these young women is $8 a week for a beginner,
which sum was soon raised to $12 and then to $15 a week.
The highest salary paid is $35 a week ; but some of the
women and girls who work at home make even more than
this. A fair average salary is $25 a week. The hours
are not long, from 8:30 A. M. to 5 P. M., with an hour of
respite at noon and a half holiday on Saturday, as a rule,
although in some design-rooms work does not begin until
9 A. M. ; and, during the winter, it stops as soon as the
light has grown too faint to see well, and this on some
days is at 4 p. M.
The work itself is delightful. To see growing under
one's hands all the beautiful ideas conceived by a fertile
brain, to see one of them come into being and grow into a
perfect thing, and to know that when finished it will be of
practical use and, because practical, will bring its fair
value, is indeed a happiness.
FLORENCE ELIZABETH CORY.
250 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ART WORK TO MAKE MONEY.
The Commercial View Essential. — A Woman Must Be Will-
ing to Illustrate Dealers' Catalogues or Anything Else.
IT is difficult to put into words lessons learned from
experience, especially difficult when they are intended to
help those who are about to tread the way you have stum-
bled along. I have an inherent belief that every woman
has a right to do the work she feels herself capable of do-
ing best, provided she works earnestly and never forgets
her duty to herself.
Business tact is nothing more than practical knowledge
of the commercial side of one's work. It is knowledge
only to be acquired by contact with business men and by
striving to supply their wants at the market value. Wo-
man must work shoulder to shoulder with man. She has
no right to expect work unless she can prove her capa-
bility to do it as well as any man.
After three years' delightful study in New York in
engraving and drawing, I found myself as helpless as a
child so far as practical knowledge of my art was con-
cerned. I stood no possible chance in competition with
men who had engraved for twenty years. Once con-
vinced of this fact, I began to question how they learned
the art. I found they had all been taught in the school
of practical experience. They had served apprenticeships
in engraving-rooms, mastered the commercial and grown
into the artistic work that leads the world to-day in fine
engraving.
Following the advice of an accomplished artist in charge
of the engraving department of a leading publication, I
set about to learn the commercial side of engraving as a
man would. He loaned me some commercial tools, and
encouraged me to master the practical part of my profes-
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 251
sion, without which, he assured me, I could never hope to
succeed. Subsequently, I set out for Providence, R. I.,
where I worked for two years in a large engraving and
illustrating house. I received $9 a week the first year,
and $10 the second year. Instead of being employed as
I had dreamed of being, to engrave from paintings of the
masters, I began two years of work,' eight hours a day,
making cuts of watch chains and cuff buttons.
It was in these months of discouraging, monotonous,
wearing work that I gained the discipline that has since
been to me of such inestimable value. I had never known
before the meaning of serious work. I was entirely alone
in a strange city, the only woman at the workshop, daily
forced to compare my work with that of men grown gray
in the profession. It was constant chagrin to find that my
academic training was of no practical value whatsoever.
Those two years at Providence were worth more to me
than five years of study without practical application. It
was there I learned the cash value of work, the necessity
of mastering all details that make work marketable.
There I acquired the strength that confidence imparts,
the training in endurance that is absolutely necessary to
success, and the realisation that anything is artistic if
you make a picture of it.
At the end of two years' apprenticeship I returned to
New York. As much of my work at Providence had been
on jewelry catalogues, I naturally sought jewelry firms
for employment. One day I entered a jewelry store in
Union Square and asked the proprietor to let me illus-
trate his catalogue. After looking at proofs of my work,
and asking my prices, he said he would consider the
matter for a few days.
In the interval I spent the most anxious moments of
my life. A week later I began work on his catalogue,
252 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
which kept me busy a whole summer. I always recall
that catalogue with mingled pride and amusement, my
anxiety over the work and the fearful sense of responsi-
bility. Since then my experience has broadened widely.
Through that jeweller I met others of the trade for whom
I have handled in a season ten times the amount of work
covered by that first summer. I have come to feel
strongly the courtesy with which I have always been
treated, and am grateful for the help and sympathy I have
received from men, all of which has tended to lighten
labour.
But this is what I want to say, and to say strongly :
The great majority of men and women who are really
successful learn their first lessons in the practical part,
then grow. Training in the artistic comes later, comes
after they have stood the test of the routine and the
monotony of the practical. Go to work among workers,
not among dreamers.
If you feel you have talent for drawing or engraving or
designing, go where that work is done, and offer a year of
your time without compensation. Then, if you stand the
test of that year of strain on your enthusiasm and strength,
you will be worth something to your employer. You can
then begin to study along higher lines, having the advan-
tage of practical knowledge to build upon.
Go bravely to your eight hours a day ; don't stay away
for a headache. It is discipline that will strengthen you
for all time.
There is an unlimited field in New York for women in
all artistic lines, particularly in engraving. Nearly every
firm of note issues a catalogue. Business men have learned
that a picture of anything they have for sale, that
enchances its attractiveness, pays them ; consequently
they are willing to pay the artist who makes it.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 253
Not long since, the manager of one of the largest corset
firms in the city told me that it is impossible to get really
good artistic sketches of corsets. This is a field practi-
cally unoccupied. It pays well, and certainly is more
satisfactory, if not more self-respecting, than to harass
suffering publishers with impossible illustrations for books.
Another unworked field is the retouching of photo-
graphs. I know of no line of work at present that requires
more skill or pays better. These are but two of many
openings that I have encountered in my business life that
demand skilled talent and pay well for the same.
Business life is not without its trials, but pleasant
phases are not wanting. No self-respecting woman need
fear or dread it. Men are almost invariably courteous
and respectful, kind and helpful. The occasional excep-
tion only increases appreciation of the rule.
Lois KNIGHT.
TASTE IN TRIMMING HATS.
If You Lack That You Cannot Learn to be a Milliner. — But
if a Woman Has a Good Eye for Colour Effects,
She Has a Good Chance of Making a Living.
To all those who think of taking up millinery let me
say, first of all, you must have taste for combining colour
and materials.
Every woman cannot become a trimmer, but nearly all
can be good milliners. "Trimmers are born, not made,"
is a phrase we constantly hear, but it is possible with
practice to become a trimmer, though the style may not
be as chic as that of a French artiste.
The work is at all times fascinating, though during the
height of the season it is often labourious, as the hours of
254 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
work cannot well be regulated, and in a crowded work-
room it is extremely uncomfortable.
Many girls have a natural taste and talent for the art,
having for years made all their own hats and bon-
nets ; for those a course or two at a school is a great
benefit, as they will learn the simpler ways of working
and save much time. There are various other reasons
for women taking up millinery : For their own use, thus
having more at less cost, and we all know the cost of
materials is but a small part of the price of our head-
gear ; as a fad, because others do, and, again, having to
earn their living, girls imagine there is more money made
and less time spent than at other trades. For the few
there is much money ; for the many, less. The seasons
are short, and the greater number are employed only
seven or eight months during the year.
When a girl decides that she will take up millinery as a
trade or a pastime, the first thing to do is to decide where
she will study, in a workroom or a school. The former
is the old-fashioned way, and many still cling to it as
being the better. As to schools, there are schools and
schools, and each student must decide for herself which
she prefers. Some schools charge a certain amount,
furnish materials, do not limit the time, teach what a
girl asks to be taught, and advertise to guarantee places.
The latter clause is the most attractive, as every woman
likes to find a place ready when wanted.
Then there are schools teaching a system — in nearly
every case the Pratt Institute system, though changed
somewhat to meet the requirements of the different
schools and to suit the ideas of each individual teacher.
The instructors give a certain number of lessons, teach a
system during that time which thoroughly covers the
foundation of the work, and charge a regular price for the
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 255
instruction. The system generally comprises seventy-two
lessons of two hours each, and the length of time taken
depends on the number of lessons given during a week,
some schools giving only two, some four, some five. The
prices of tuition also vary, some schools charging as
high as $30 for the entire course, others as low as $18.
Each pupil furnishes her own materials, which consist
of canton flannel, cheesecloth, percaline or satine, and
tissue paper for practice work. By selecting her colour-
ing carefully, she is able to make a hat or bonnet
decidedly up to date. For the work on good materials she
purchases what she prefers, after suggestions from the
teacher, and what her purse will allow. The expense of
the practice materials is $3 or $4, and usually three good
hats need to be furnished in addition to the mourning
work. The course embraces wiring ; folds, bindings and
facings of all kinds ; bows and rosettes ; trimming ; cov-
ering plain hats ; making bonnets and small hats ; black
silk and crepe work, and making of wire and buckram
frames.
After a girl decides where she is to study she must go
into the work with all her might — give her entire time to
it if necessary, read what she may see in the papers, visit
the different millinery showrooms in the city, using her
eyes well ; practise out of class hours (as in no other way
can she become sure of herself), make frequent notes and
ask questions whenever in doubt. By the time she
finishes the first course she, as well as her teacher, can
tell whether it will pay to continue, and it is always well
to have a chat with the teacher on the question of con-
tinuing or not.
When a girl has completed the course, her first thought
is to procure a place, and her school will always help
whenever possible. Much depends on a girl's personal
256 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
appearance. She should be neatly and plainly dressed,
with scrupulously clean hands and finger-nails, a pleasant
face and greeting, with some self-confidence. It is per-
fectly natural to shrink when facing something untried, but
it must not be too apparent when applying for a place.
I have known many good workers who would have
been perfect treasures to an employer had the latter
only known it, but the applicants were so diffident and
distrustful of their abilities that they were passed over,
and those taken had less ability but more confidence.
In nearly every case, after taking an entire course, the
pupil is worth $6 a week, and many are worth $8. Some
are fortunate in getting what they ask for, and others
have to be content with less. Whether her wages are
raised as time passes depends a great deal on herself. It
will often pay a girl to work a month for nothing, as dur-
ing that time she can gain a good knowledge of work-
room life, and confidence in her own ability at the same
time.
It is not always necessary to enter a workroom, as
there are other ways of using her trade. If she is not
wholly dependent on what she can earn and has time to
build up a home trade, it is very desirable, especially to
one living out of, but near, a city. From one or two
friends, who will recommend her to others, and so on, a
trade will grow. It is more business-like to have cards
printed and hat tips stamped, and the extra outlay of
money will pay in increased patronage.
If possible, the milliner should do the shopping for
customers, for she will soon learn to know what they like
and can afford, and can broaden her own ideas, besides
saving them time. She can register at all of the stores
where she intends to shop, and they will give her a dis-
count, sometimes 6, sometimes 10 per cent. If she has a
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 257
large shopping list she may go to a wholesale house,
where she can purchase in small quantities everything in
the millinery line, and in this way make something more
than a discount.
Another way is to go out by the day, working from 9
o'clock to 5. Many families can make use of materials
that are good, though having been used before, by hiring
a milliner to do the work in their homes, thus having a
greater number of hats at less cost, and trimmed to suit
each person's fancy. The price for a day's work will vary
from $2 to $4, according to her ability and quickness.
Another wishes to teach, but on this let me say, first,
she should not think of money at all. If she feels that
she can impart to others in a plain, simple way what she
understands herself, will love the work for its own sake,
and not for the money it brings, then go into it ; other-
wise, never take up that branch of the work.
In a teacher the chief requisites are patience, pleasant-
ness of manner and kindness to all. Never have favour-
ites. She must gain the pupils' respect during the first
lessons, and then she can depend on them to do their
work to please her.
A good way of beginning this part of the work is in the
mission schools, which pay $1.56 a lesson. Private classes
are also practicable, if one has a room suitable for the
purpose. The charge for a lesson is usually from 50 cents
in a class to $i for a private lesson.
No one must think that after spending only a few
months in studying she is finished, and will make a suc-
cess in the first venture. Every season brings something
to learn. One must not allow herself to get discouraged,
but work on steadily, and success will surely come to her.
BESSIE ANNIE LOSEY.
See also " Society Women in Business."
258 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
WAGES OF MILLINERS.
THREE dollars a week appears to be the lowest price
paid anywhere in a millinery establishment or in the mil-
linery branch of the department stores. This is almost
invariably for the very young girls of the " office-boy "
and " cash-girl " type, and is probably as much as girls of
the same age earn elsewhere.
To those who are actually milliners of different degrees
of experience, the weekly pay varies from $5 and $6 a
week to about $10 and $12. Most of the girls will prob-
ably never rise above the latter amount of compensation,
because they merely want to earn a living while waiting
for the almost inevitable marriage, and having no especial
talent for colour and design.
Really good milliners, who enter with all their heart
into the enjoyment of creating new ideas in hats and who
have sterling common-sense, energy of management and
the knack of the artist, may reasonably hope in time to
be placed in charge of a department in the store, or, under
the direction of the proprietor, to superintend the while
operation of the work in a regular establishment. Such
women can earn excellent salaries. Beginning with from
$12 to $15 a week, they may hope to rise to $20, $25 and
even to $30 a week, as forewomen.
When a forewoman becomes worth $25 or $30 a week
the proprietor is dangerously near the point of losing her.
It all depends on the forewoman herself. She may
become a proprietor herself, if she has saved enough
money to begin operations on her own account and has
the courage to undertake them.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 259
DRESSMAKING.
Two Ways of Learning the Trade. — Homespun, Old-Time
Methods Replaced To-day by Thoroughly Scientific
Training. — Much Required From a Dressmaker.
SEWING is a universal feminine accomplishment. Any
woman may learn to sew and to fashion simple garments.
Most of them do.
Among the poor, thousands turn to common sewing as
the easiest thing for a living, not realising the important
business fact that those who attempt the easiest things
always meet the most competition and have to submit to
the lowest wages. Many, being without ambition, or too
tired at the end of each day's work to improve themselves
in their calling, never fit themselves to execute the higher
classes of work, which pay better.
Almost any woman may be taught the trade of dress-
making, but to become a really good dressmaker is not so
simple a matter. Ambition to advance, a natural taste,
the instinct for decoration, a correct eye for colour and
some artistic ability must be inherent. Intelligent and
thorough cultivation of all these qualities is as necessary
to a training as a special knowledge of cutting, fitting and
putting together materials.
There are two ways of learning the trade of dressmak-
ing, which is the higher branch of the art of the seamstress.
A girl may go into a shop and be gradually promoted
from the lowest to the highest grade. This is a slow
process, at the end of which she may know as much as
the particular dressmaker under whom she has been edu-
cated, but no more. Or she may take a regular course of
study at a reputable school. There are charity classes for
seamstresses who cannot afford to pay for learning to sew,
260 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
but these rarely take the student beyond the most simple
forms of garment-making.
Before entering a school of dressmaking, it is necessary
to know enough about sewing to be able to cut from a
pattern and make an unlined dress. To one able to
devote her whole time to class work, the course may be
completed in one school year of nine months. The stu-
dent is fully instructed in the underlying principles of the
trade, and is required to make her own dresses, in order
to apply the principles she has learned. As soon as she
is proficient enough she is set at work on dresses ordered
from outside of the school. A course in freehand draw-
ing and water colour, while not absolutely necessary, is
highly beneficial to any one who aspires to make a name
in the art ; in some schools it is obligatory. The advan-
tage of being able to express ideas with pencil and brush
is easy to understand.
All schools follow about the same line of instruction,
and the course at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
may be taken as a good example of the whole. There
the course is as follows :
FIRST GRADE.
Draughting and making walking skirt.
Cutting, fitting and making lined skirt from pattern.
Study of colour, form, line and texture.
SECOND GRADE.
Draughting and making lined waists.
Matching stripes and plaids.
Study of artistic and hygienic principles.
THIRD GRADE.
Draughting and making a princess and an evening dress.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 261
Study of contours and poise of the body, as essential to
artistic dress.
Colour and texture for house and evening dress.
FOURTH GRADE.
Draughting, cutting and making jacket.
Draughting child's dress and coat.
Study of woollen textiles.
COSTUME DESIGN.
Practice in the use of pencil and water colour.
Appearance of objects, bows, gowns and drapery.
Outline and proportion of the human form.
Study of historic costumes, designing of gowns.
The cost of tuition at Pratt Institute is $75 for the
nine months. The student works from 9 A. M. to i p. M.
and from 2 to 5 o'clock in the afternoon every day except
Saturday and Sunday. Her expenses, besides tuition,
are for board and a certain amount of money to cover
cost of the materials in which she works. Part of this
expense may be defrayed by making garments for
others.
After a girl leaves the school she usually endeavours
to find a position in a first-class dressmaking establish-
ment, and these are quite numerous in large centres of
population. It is not always possible to obtain prompt
employment in such a place ; but if it is effected the young
dressmaker has the advantage of being able to work in
fine materials and acquire experience in designing hand-
some and fashionable gowns. Many girls go into the
department stores, others find employment in the making
and alteration of dresses in private families.
The salaries paid in shops are not large, as a rule.
262 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
A good skirt woman gets from $6 to $12 a week. A
waist-trimmer receives from $9 upward. Waists call for
all the originality and ingenuity of which a dressmaker is
capable, and an expert in this branch is always sure of a
position.
If a dressmaker has business ability she may venture to
open an establishment of her own. As to the possible
earnings of an employing dressmaker, little can be defi-
nitely said. In a small town the prices asked for the
making of a gown, however skilfully the work be done,
must always be lower than in a large place. At the same
time, the expenses for rent, board and help will also be less.
Again, success in any line is largely a matter of personal
qualities. A women might be a second Worth or Redfern,
and yet not possess the ability to attract and retain cus-
tomers. Dressmaking may be made a profitable occupa-
tion if industry, ability and honest endeavour to please and
do justice to each individual patron are taken for granted.
The woman whose good points are emphasized and
whose defects are hidden by her clothes owes a debt to
the dressmaker which she is quick to perceive and which
she ought to be willing to reward liberally. Regular cus-
tomers are not won at once, and the first year or two of
the dressmaker's career may not yield a large profit.
After that she may hope to make a fair living. A well-
trained, tactful, industrious woman may expect to make
from $1,000 a year upward, depending on the community
in which she lives, and the number of patrons to whom
she gives decided satisfaction. A number of women in
Boston, New York, Chicago and other large cities have
made what must be regarded as fortunes.
Sff also " Society Women in Business."
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 263
WAGES OF SEAMSTRESSES.
WITH seamstresses and dressmakers, as with milliners,
wages vary with the abilities of the worker.
In the far West, where for half a century women were
far fewer than men, and where they are yet numerically
less than the hardier sex, they earn slightly better pay
than in the more crowded East.
In the East, the lowest rate of weekly pay is from $4 to
$6. Experience and excellence of workmanship bring
rapid promotion. Probably $12 to $15 is as much as any
worker can expect who has not yet risen distinctly above
the mass of her fellow-workwomen.
Forewomen in stores and dressmaking establishments
may expect all the way from $10 to $15, $20 and $30
a week. There are cases where forewomen earn $40 a
week. But what should prevent a woman who is worth
$40 a week from setting up her own establishment is a
mystery, unless it be her delightful freedom from the cares
and ups and downs of business enterprise.
COMPETENT PROOFREADERS.
IN regard to the business of proofreading, allow me to
put in my protest against the assumption that proofread-
ing is a trade that can be acquired in a few weeks or
months by any one who has a fair education. It is a mis-
take to assume that the principal duty of a reader is the
correction of errors of spelling and punctuation. There
are scores of graduates of colleges — men of learning and
ability — who have unsuccessfully tried to read proof in
book-houses, who will certify to the correctness of my
assertion that much of the knowledge required of a good
264 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
proofreader is not taught in the schools. Neither is it
laid down in books, and it can be acquired only by practi-
cal work when the student is young and willing to do the
drudgery of literature.
I make, however, no objection to the employment of
women as proofreaders. Our house has women readers
and is well pleased with their work. They have also the
approval and often the commendation of exacting authors.
They are successful because they have been trained as
typesetters, and have qualified themselves by continued
reading and study after work hours.
THEO. L. DE VINNE.
OUTLOOK FOR CERAMISTS.
Success Assured to Earnest Workers. — Pottery the Most Per-
manent Medium of Expression.
THE most important and impressive characteristic
presented by ceramics is its absolute permanence of
colour, and truly if an artist has anything worth recording
it seems of great importance that that record should be
made in as permanent a way as possible. Mineral colour,
fired and incorporated with the glaze, on a clay body, is
the one unchanging expression of colour. Neither mois-
ture nor heat nor cold nor the sunlight of a thousand
years will serve to change or vary in the minutest degree
that which fire has fixed.
Artists generally are inclined to feel that they would be
handicapped in their expression through this medium.
Perhaps it is felt that clay forms— merely having a form,
be that form vase, tile or plaque— are something of a bar-
rier to spontaneous development. But on the other hand
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 265
these forms in and of themselves frequently suggest and
invite an expression or treatment. Then again some of
our co-workers have hesitated in giving their sympathy
because this branch has been looked upon as capable of
receiving only conventional treatment. On the contrary,
the porcelain surface is most elastic in- its generous invita-
tion, both to artist and artisan, to the face worker and to
the conventionally trained hand.
One may give expression to the freest and broadest
thought, perfectly untramelled, or, on the other hand,
may demonstrate to a nicety of perfection his skill in
technical work, purely mechanical work, or, indeed, these
classes may be combined with great satisfaction in one
production.
Surely no other surface offers more alluring diversions
than this. As a matter of fact, porcelain is most respon-
sive to sympathetic treatment.
In viewing this art, not from a decorative but from an
artistic point of view, from that broader field which
encourages all spontaneous expression, it presents great
possibilities. To the artisan it presents a field full of
scientific and mechanical problems which are ever open to
solution. He may have his fullest sway, if he cares to
take advantage of the numerous opportunities in the fus-
ing of metals, or in the etching of forms and designs with
acids. As yet these conventional suggestions smack of the
factory, a word despised by the American decorator.
It is to be hoped that this American decorator's indi-
vidual growth will be assured before factories take posses-
sion of the clays of our country. This factory influence
is what we are trying to shake off, what we are trying to
outgrow.
What we need is good workers, students well trained in
our best art schools. The china painter is fast learning
266 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
that his position is measured and settled by his actual
knowledge of art principles. This is as it should be.
Among those who frequent the ceramic studios of New
York there are no more welcome students than those who
come from the league and from the schools of applied arts,
to gain a technical knowledge which they wish to apply in
their own way. Yearly we note that the workers who are
gaining ground are those who are properly equipped,
those who are trained to see broadly, to have the largest
idea of the unfolding of the power intrusted to them.
We need students of strong personality, of boldness of
expression, of spontaneous enthusiasm. These will leave
an impression and gain the respect of the whole world for
our art.
To be sure, we have a few of such workers — too few as
yet, so that they stand out pre-eminently in ceramic
circles — who prove to us the absolute importance, not only
of general art education and general attainment, but
added to these a happy enthusiasm born of love for the
work.
We almost make a plea to the overcrowded ranks of
other professional lines, perhaps to those who ordinarily
enter illustrative and designing fields, and show our hand
by dropping a bait in the shape of commercial opportunity.
The women who have been most successful in ceramics
from a financial point of view have been those who were
primarily teachers. The college-bred girl, with the all-
round knowledge such advantage should have given her,
supplemented by a course in art, should be a better teacher
and produce better things than would be possible to her
without this training. The girl who wishes thoroughly to
equip herself for ceramic painting, seeing in it a field for
earning money, should first choose the style of work she
wishes to take up, then fit herself for it. Should painting
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 267
prove more attractive than purely decorative work, the
same knowledge of perspective, drawing and composition
will be required that is necessary to an artist who uses
oil or water colour as a means of expression. This is best
supplied by a regular course in an art institute. If deco-
rative painting be the choice, a course in designing will be
admirable, requiring from one to three years, during
which time old porcelains may be made a special outside
course of reading.
Intervals during the regular school course may be used
in either case to gain a knowledge of the variety and
quality of porcelains, the use of mineral colours, and the
art of fixing these colours with fire.
For a girl thus equipped and possessing the enthusiasm
for her chosen profession that every successful teacher
must have, I bespeak success. If you are not possessed
of means to take such a course, you will need to make
your start in a private studio, along the lines of advice
given later on to the teacher who must in a short time
be a breadwinner.
Even under these conditions it is possible to be success-
ful. You will be happy in choosing this art, that appeals
so generally to the naturally refined taste of the American
woman. Her wishes are to be mainly considered, for it
is she who will be almost exclusively your buyer and your
student.
Do not lose sight of the fact that you have chosen a
profession to succeed from a financial point of view.
Therefore do not try to be a great reformer, but rather
try to be helpful to all who come to you, meeting each
individual wish and putting yourself in sympathy with
your patron and your student.
The American woman as a student will come to you
for knowledge of an art that will be to her possibly a
268 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
pleasant pastime, possibly a means of satisfying a craving
to create something beautiful, but oftener to use the
knowledge as a means of earning money.
The first-named class of students are, as a rule, delight-
ful. Possessing tact, you will assist these to do happily
what they wish to do, making the doing of it a delight.
Failing to make the hours employed pleasant ones, and
the productions satisfying to the student, you have not
grasped the situation. The second class are willing to be
more or less earnest students, and to them theories of
art and its mission, as well as exact technical knowledge,
may be freely and satisfactorily given. These students are
willing to study art for art's sake, and should be given as
much thorough training as the time at individual disposal
will permit.
The third class, those who are endeavouring in as short
a time as possible to enter the list of wage-earners, require
special consideration. As a rule, the utmost you can do
for one of these is to help her to paint a considerable
number of pieces representing a variety of styles. She
will probably wish to copy these from your finished pro-
ductions in order to get, in the briefest time, the necessary
pieces of china for the opening or the freshening of her
studio. This is not, most likely, what you would prefer
to do, and perhaps your student is capable of much better,
capable of doing good, original work ; yet in helping her
to do what she needs you find your opportunity to
encourage her to go to nature for her inspiration and to
suggest to her how to study composition and designing.
Give her the best you can of what she needs for immedi-
ate use, and plant seeds for a better growth. For a time
the most this teacher can do for her pupils is to have
copies made of what she has painted with you. Later
she can give them an idea of the seeds you have planted
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 269
for her, and so make not only your studies and designs
helpful, but your teaching far-reaching and productive of
much good.
Ceramic art has a right to live, and will live, will keep
records of thoughts and impressions, records historically.
If a great thought is to live at all,' it is meet that it
should be carried out in a permanent form. We have no
more permanent expression, either in the world of art or
of letters. Why not, then, encourage it, develop it, pro-
gress with it, for as Goethe has said, " Whatever is good
as God's will is permanent."
F. VANCE PHILLIPS.
BOOKBINDING AS A CRAFT.
The Woman Who Wants to Learn May Here Find What to
Do. — No Success Without Patience, Exactness and
an Eye for Design.
IT has been asked whether bookbinding has proved an
occupation suitable for women, and whether it pays. The
best answer to these questions is an explanation of the
conditions of the work.
Bookbinding is not to be learned in less than six months,
and this means regular work, six days a week, five hours
a day. Even after six months' steady application no
teacher would be willing to say that he could turn out a
finished and competent workwoman ready to take her
place in the competition of the trade. At the end of six
months, the teacher has simply done his part ; the rest
lies with the pupil alone.
After preliminary training, the chief need on the part of
the pupil is perfection of technique, which in such a craft
270 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
is to be attained only by constant and uninterrupted repe-
tition of processes. This alone disposes of a large class
of women, who either will not or cannot give steady work
or time — women who do not care for any work which
exacts steady application at the sacrifice of amusements
or other interests.
Bookbinding is wholly unsuited to women seeking a
light accomplishment to be picked up or dropped at will.
The outfit for such work as a woman would do in a small
shop where no steam or patent machines are used and
all processes are done by hand, in short, what the trade
calls a " garret-binder," costs $150. The outfit is a much
less serious matter in New York than the cost of rent.
A good-sized room, with plenty of light (not overhead
studio light), and a floor which may be treated with
utmost disrespect, are necessary for a workshop. If a
woman asked my advice I would suggest making a com-
bination, if possible, with some other binder, and thus
reduce the cost of rent, which is the great bugbear of any
working woman in a city like New York. For this reason
such work seems to be especially suited to a woman who
already has a home provided for her ; who has a father
who is, perhaps, able to help support her while she is pre-
paring herself for her future work.
Bookbinding is not promising to poor women, or to
women who have an income but who expect to reap some
return as soon as they begin to work.
The running expenses of leather, paper, thread, glue,
the books to be bound and other items are not small.
Compared with the working material of the writer it is
large, while compared with that of the painter it is mod-
erate. The cost of the requisite six months' tuition in
this country is about $450 ; in England it can be learned
for possibly half that sum, but with the extra expense of
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS, 271
going abroad it amounts to about the same thing. The
experience of living in such a place as London, however,
is so stimulating to all one's working powers, the atmos-
phere is so suggestive, so serious, that when it is possible
I strongly advise study abroad. I believe the art cannot
be learned there in less than a year.
Granting that a woman begins with a real vocation, a
love for the work and a determination to learn, the main
quality needed is patience ; the patience which comes
with the temperament that loves " pottering " ; the
patience which loves fine and delicate work, that causes
absolute exactness ; the patience that is willing to go over
and over one operation until the necessary exactness is
secured. Exactitude of mind is not a common feminine
attribute. Exactness is usually the last thing she masters
by training, and its possession is absolutely imperative to
the good bookbinder. It is a quality acquired by habitu-
ating one's self from the start to observe the difference
between an eighth and a quarter of an inch, and to regard
the same as a matter of vital importance. Once this is
grasped, it seems to me, it is no more difficult for a
woman to succeed than for a man. There are certain men
and women to whom exactness is an impossibility. To
the woman so constituted bookbinding is unsuited.
With correctness of eye, exactness of habit, patience
and a certain amount of feeling for colour, harmony and
design, and a real love for the work, I should say, with-
out hesitation, that a woman can go far in this line and
make a decided success.
To sum up, bookbinding is suited either as an accom-
plishment or a money-making occupation to only a small
class of women. To the minority it is eminently suited.
To the woman tired of " gadding," and whose circum-
stances allow her to give a certain number of hours daily
272 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
to some serious occupation, and who has enough money
to spend without needing any return, and who loves
books ; to such a woman I would say : " Bind books, and
you will find the utmost delight in clothing, to suit your-
self, your favourite authors."
To the woman who wishes to earn a good living and
who can afford the training and wait for success, let me
add : " Go ahead, and success will come."
EVELYN HUNTER NORDHOFF.
THE MAKING OF BOOK COVERS.
SINCE the foregoing was written Miss NordhofFs death
has been announced. The work so well begun by her
has, in accordance with her last wishes, been continued
by two of her pupils, Miss M. Pratt and Miss Florence
Foote. The designing of book covers for the trade,
which is a branch of the bookmaking art, offers a field of
work for which women seem well adapted, but for which,
as yet, the proper training is difficult to obtain. While
schools of design offer courses of general study, none
devote attention especially to book covers, and, according
to the publishers and bookbinders, the present courses
are not satisfactory.
Four women, at least, have made marked successes in
this field, however. Mrs. Whitman, of Boston ; Miss
Margaret Armstrong, Miss E. Redington Lee and Miss
Amy Richards, of New York, have designed many of the
best book covers used by such houses as Houghton &
Mifflin, Harper's, Scribner's and Dodd & Mead. These
young women attribute their success mainly to their
thorough training in drawing and their practical know-
ledge of the requirements of bookbinding. The latter is
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 273
by no means easy to ascertain. The school established
by Miss Nordhoff is the only one in the country wherein
a woman can learn anything more of bookbinding than
the simple stitching together of leaves. The Book-
binders' Union excludes women from the higher branches
of the trade.
The prices paid for book-cover designs average $15.
The demand is hardly large enough yet to encourage
many women to look to it exclusively for a means of live-
lihood, but, supplemented by designing of posters, adver-
tisements, magazine covers and borders, a very fair
amount might be realised annually.
For other information in the field of Design see " Pictures
and Statues."
SMALL MANUFACTURES.
Need, Accident and Ingenuity Lead Some Women into the
Founding of Small Industries.
FEW women have as yet built up manufacturing enter-
prises of their own. Quite a number have fallen heir to
established industries and conducted them with success ;
but the women who start factories of their own are not
numerous. There are a few, however, who have done so,
having stumbled into the occupation by accident, or hav-
ing been led into it by need or their own ingenious inven-
tions.
Some of the small industries scarcely rise above the
level of drudgery pure and simple. Softsoap-making was
once quite universal. The commodity was in extended
use, and many a farmer's wife added to her pin-money by
selling a barrel of softsoap in some neighbouring city
274 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
every year, in the " good old times." In modern days a
few women have undertaken to make fine soaps for
fastidious families. The process is not difficult, and
affords a fair remuneration.
Basket-weaving is now left generally to rural workers ;
but there are a number of factories in which women can
earn about $5 a week, and some of them are conducted
by women.
Glove dyeing is a good business and is followed by
many women. One case is known of a poor widow, who
was forced by necessity to dye her dress black after her
husband's death, and who did it so well that she soon
found herself profitably employed in dying dresses for
others. She supported herself for years from this indus-
try, employing such assistants as were required.
The desire of many families to buy only the purest of
candies, and the fact that home-made confectionery is
usually more agreeable to the palate, has opened the way
to women in almost every city to add to their earnings
by supplying caramels, chocolates and other wholesome
dainties. In these instances little is required to convert
the business into a regular industry. The sale is usually
best during the holiday season.
Mme. Demorest made a fortune in the manufacture of
patterns. It is true that she had a newspaper also, but
that publication was merely an adjunct to her pattern in-
dustry, which was built up to enormous proportions.
The Patent Office at Washington is full of applications
for patents by women. Games, notions, baby carriages,
sewing implements, tools and a thousand and one small
things are patented by women. In many cases the manu-
facture is carried on by them on a small scale. A smart
idea can be sold at all times to those who already manu-
facture kindred commodities ; and more than one woman
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 275
has assured her bread and butter for life by such a sale.
But there is sometimes more money to be made by
manufacturing for one's self. This must always be a
matter of judgment, however. Capital, a shop, and per-
haps a partner, are necessary, if a woman intends to
manufacture on her own account.
Umbrella-making was at one time a suitable field for
women. In these latter days women appear in the indus-
try mainly as employees, and earn from about $6 to $14 a
week.
Many women earn a living by making knick-knacks
for holiday presents, illustrated blotting pads, etc.
FACTORY GIRLS.
They Comprise Fully One-Fourth of the Women Employed. —
The Wages They Can Earn. — Physical Strength Re-
quired in Most Industries.
ELSEWHERE in this publication, under the title of " Grow-
ing Fields of Work," attention has been called to the
increasing percentage of women employed in business and
clerical pursuits, and the relative decrease of the percent-
age of those engaged in the more labourious occupations.
It remains true, however, that, so far as the actual num-
ber of women at work is concerned, manufactures and
agriculture are the support of the majority of them. Of
the more than 4,000,000 of women who have taken their
places in the ranks of labour, about 650,000 belong to the
proprietor and professional classes ; about 250,000 to the
clerical classes (round numbers are used for convenience),
something over 1,200,000 are employed in the manufac-
tures, and close to 2,000,000 in domestic service and agri-
culture.
276 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
The factories of the United States performed an im-
mense public service during their early years in giving
employment to a vast number of girls from the farms of
the Eastern States, whose labour until that time had been
of no particular money value to themselves.
Down to the present day, in spite of the continual influx
of foreign labour, the factories perform the same useful
service in giving employment to vast numbers of native
girls and women of all ages, from children of ten to
women of mature years. The factory has become, in
fact, an important competitor now, in all the States where
industries thrive, with other forms of gainful occupation
for women. The hours of labour, long as they are, are
not so protracted as in domestic service, and the evenings
are free. The factories are available for any woman who
must engage in work and who does not enjoy the educa-
tion and influence which would enable her to take up
other occupations. Sometimes it is the only employment
in the vicinity.
Hours and wages in factories are fixed largely by con-
ferences between the trades unions and the employers.
Ultimately, the rate of wages is fixed by the condition of
the markets for the various goods. Simple forms of work,
as in many of the operations of cotton and woollen facto-
ries, receive a smaller compensation than more delicate
and elaborate processes. It is intended that all who
enter the factories shall at least make a living, if they are
able to perform the work ; but much depends on the
capacity of the worker herself. As a rule, a good degree
of physical strength is required from the factory worker.
It would be impracticable and scarcely useful in the
limits of this paper to give a complete idea of the possi-
bilities of the factories for wage-earning in every detail.
Exact and complete .information can only be obtained in
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 277
Government reports. But some idea of the matter can be
given, and this will be sufficient for all practical purposes.
In a general way it may be said that women earn less in
the factories than men, partly due to the difference in
physical strength of the two sexes, but also in part due to
the regulations of the trades unions., A woman who
wishes to improve herself in her calling may, however,
advance steadily until her abilities result in promotion to
the more important forms of the work, and in these she
will receive better pay. If she rises to be a forewoman
her pay will be distinctly better. In a few of the leading
industries in which women are employed to a certain extent
the pay is about as follows :
Awnings, tents and flags — Cutters, from $4 a week to
$7.50. Forewomen, $11 or $12.
Bagmaking, cotton — The range of wages is from about
$4 a week to $6.50. Forewomen get about $10.
Boots and shoes — This trade has numerous subdivisions,
the work in a shoe factory being specialized to the last
degree. Children get from $2 to $4.50 a week. The
stitching of uppers requires good workmanship, and pays
from $4.50 to $12, and even as high as $15 and $16 a week.
Eyeletters range from $9 to $14 a week, as a rule. Fore-
women get from $15 to $24 a week. The wages vary
with age, experience and the character of the work. The
compensation varies somewhat accordingly as the worker
is paid by days of labour or by the piece.
Boxes, paper — This is a calling for women especially,
and the compensation ranges from about $5 to $13 weekly.
Cotton goods — This is another industry in which the
work is highly specialized. Spinners, women, receive from
$3 to $6 a week. Weavers earn anywhere from $3.75 a
week to $8, and often as high as $12. The manufacture
of some classes of goods pays the worker better than
278 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
others, depending on the simplicity of the operations and
the state of the markets. Women carders earn from $4.50
to $11 a week.
Compositors — The printing trades give employment to
many women, especially in the smaller cities. Few earn
less than $6 a week, and many as high as $12 and $14.
Women who have learned to operate a typesetting appar-
atus, especially a Mergenthaler lineotype machine, often
receive as high as $15, $17.50 and $19 a week. Fore-
women are specially paid.
Silk industry — Weavers earn a great variety of wages,
ranging all the way from $3.20 a week to $10, $12.50 and
$15. Much depends on the ability of the worker and the
kind of goods manufactured. The average range of earn-
ings is from $4 to $7.50.
Woollen manufacturing — Women carders get from $3
to $5.75 a week. Spinners, $3.60 to $6.50. Weavers are
paid from $3.25 to $8, and sometimes as high as$n a
week. Finishers, from $4 to $9.
The foregoing are all great staple lines of industry. In
the large cities many special forms of industry, such as
the manufacture of feathers, confectionery, fancy leather
goods, jewelry, blank books, etc., are carried on, in which
the woman worker finds better compensation than in the
greater factories of staples.
The majority of women employed in American factories
are single. Not more than n per cent, of them are mar-
ried. As a general rule, girls leave the factory after mar-
riage.
Counting all the branches of work in different indus-
tries as separate occupations, women are now employed in
about two thousand of them. For many occupations they
are better fitted than men, and in a few they receive
better pay.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 279
FAIRY CREATIONS IN LACE.
Exquisite Work Done by the Women of Colonial Times. —
Stitches That " Could Not Be Seen."— Effect of Over-
straining the Eyes in Doing Needlework.
IN a quaint homestead at Port Washington belonging to
one of the old and prominent families of Long Island —
the Mitchell family— is a large and varied collection of
household and personal belongings ^dating back to Colo-
nial times.
The exquisite fine sewing, embroidery and lacework of
our grandmothers and the strained sight in making these
fairy creations of the needle, by the dim tallow dip or
" Betty lamp," may be the unrecognised cause of the
glasses worn by the children and young people of the pres-
ent day. Even our mothers taught us to sew by hand
and make stitches that " could not be seen." The fact
that " they could not be seen " seemed to prove conclu-
sively their correctness, and brought forth this remark
from a little one who did not like to sew and preferred to
see what she had so labouriously completed :
" Why, mother, what is the use of making stitches if
they cannot be seen ? "
Our great-grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers
have bequeathed to these days of sewing-machine stitch-
ing and machine-made lace embroidery work that it
will be well for this generation not to attempt to rival.
An elaborate style of embroidery was fashionable after
the lives of Colonial women had been somewhat eased and
softened by more comfortable living in the later Colonial
days.
The first embroideries, done on homespun web, with
home-made linen or wool thread, were superseded by
exquisite work on imported mulls and linen cambrics of
weblike fineness ; also cotton muslin of a Qfood quality
28o WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
was covered with heavy embroidery. This fashion of
mull and linen embroidery was derived from France and
Holland, the earlier homespun forms being of Puritan or
English pattern.
Mull and muslin skirts were deeply and richly embroid-
ered, with petticoats to match ; also long capes of white
mull, beautifully wrought, matched the gowns, and long
linen gloves, reaching far up the arm, home-made and
homespun, were finely embroidered by the Colonial dames'
busy needles. Many beautiful and intricate stitches
abounded. Satin stitch, feather stitch, lace stitch and
numberless drawn stitches, or what is now termed drawn
work, was familiar to our grandmothers ; also " cording,"
or laying innumerable fine cords as headings to the
embroidery ; and " tape stitching," or making beautiful
designs of flower and leaf with finest linen tape and
thread. " Stuffed embroidery " was also fashionable,
especially for bureau and toilet covers.
The fine muslin was outlined with an elaborate pattern,
grapes and leaves lending themselves well for this style of
work, each grape and leaf being " stuffed," or filled, with
fine cotton and stitched with embroidery. Not only were
the articles of personal adornment embroidered and
feather stitched and " drawn," but the household linen
came in for its share of the exquisite work, and the ruffled
shirts of the men were an important part of the charming
industry.
Mull and linen of exquisite fineness were used for this
purpose, and even when only simply hemmed the work
was so fine and beautiful that there was no possibility of
any one ever catching sight of the tiny stitches made with
Nos. 200 and 300 cotton.
The lace collars, baby caps and "modesty pieces," to
be worn with low-necked gowns then in vogue, were the
finest work and of the most intricate design. R. T.
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS.
INTRODUCTION.
NOT the least interesting of the tendencies of the times
is the avidity with which gentlewomen whose families
have become impoverished are learning to put a premium
on honest labour.
To establish a business and become known as a success-
ful woman of affairs is not now, however, solely the ambi-
tion of those whose necessities drive them to it. The
movement threatens to become eccentric in some respects,
and almost as much of a fad among society maids and
matrons as the winning of a college degree among daugh-
ters of wealth. Just as certain feminine students, in the
pursuit of good form, are being coached for college, where
perhaps they may actually lower the scholastic standard,
or at any rate do nothing to raise it, very much in the
same way as do masculine drones who resort to an insti-
tution of learning for an " education," so society women in
our large cities, without the incentive of absolute need,
are entering trade, with the hope of killing ennui or pro-
viding luxuries which their present comfortable income
fails to supply.
" It is so dull ," recently wrote a society woman
from her country seat. " All the old timers are becoming
absorbed in money-making schemes. It really seems as if
nothing were left for me to do except to go into trade.
All our set are coming to it."
282 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
On the other hand, there is a distinctive and growing
colony of women who have been bred to ease, if not to
luxury, and suddenly thrown upon their own resources,
and who, having been obliged to put their shoulders to
the wheel, are meeting with a financial success which is
not always accorded to men who have embarked in busi-
ness without previous training or discipline. These women
bring to their business dealings the presence and manner
inseparable from the cultured woman of the drawing-room
and an intelligence brightened by contact with keen wits
and active natures of their former associates in a busy
social life. In their new field of trade they are winning
new laurels.
A notable feature of the presence of the " society
woman in business " is the spirit of helpfulness and bon
camaraderie which prevails among them. Mutual sym-
pathy and interest have insensibly developed a tacit code
of reciprocity. For instance, in cases where lines of busi-
ness do not conflict, these women are wont in emergen-
cies to exchange apprentices. When the millinery trade
is dull and economy requires that the payroll be lessened,
the milliner often sends her employees to a maker of lamp
shades or cotillon favours, whose busy months follow
those of the bonnetmakers. In this and other ways they
manage jointly to give work to skilled employees all the
year round. The Editor has collected a number of
instances of the success of women belonging to the class
now under consideration, for the information and encour-
agement of others who may be thrown without previous
preparation upon their own efforts for a livelihood.
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 283
A QUAINT AND DARING IDEA.
Millinery in the Former Loft of a Stable. — Miss Harman
Brmvn Establishes One of the Most Unique Shops in the
City. — The Descendant of a Great Banker in Trade.
AMONG successful business women is Miss Harman
Brown, a young woman of varied resource and wide social
acquaintance. Having a natural taste for millinery and
hearing accidentally of a millinery school, Miss Brown
investigated it and paid $25 for a course of lessons, which
she followed at the school for several months.
"Thinking at the end of that time," said Miss Brown,
recalling her apprenticeship, " that I knew it all, I sent
out cards to friends stating that I was prepared to trim
their hats, which I did very amateurishly, no doubt, but
with a financial success which encouraged me to take in
the following fall a shop at No. n West Thirty-ninth St.,
where I made a formal entry into trade."
Experience soon taught Miss Brown that only the best
work would do for the best people. She wisely engaged
the most experienced milliners and designers to be had.
How she might have used that $25 misspent at the school
remains a subject for fruitful speculation.
After a year of varied success in Thirty-ninth St., Miss
Brown moved to her present quarters, No. 4 West Thirty-
eighth St., now one of the most unique marts of trade in
New York. Only a few doors west of Fifth Ave., in the
heart of wealth and fashion, the place was, until Miss
Brown revolutionized it, the hayloft of a livery stable
from which many a Gotham belle of earlier days was
accustomed to order her carriage. A lace-curtained door,
guarded by a liliputian in livery, and softly carpeted stairs
have replaced the steep ladder which once made access
284 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
possible to the storehouse of equine bedding. The walls
are now hung with green, and rose-shaded electric lights
lend soft radiance to the dainty dressing-tables where my
lady sits at ease while the latest conceit in bonnet or hat
is adjusted to her pretty head.
A woman with the courage of her convictions is Miss
Brown and a firm believer in individuality. She sees no
reason why Americans should not exert the same influence
in dress as do the Parisians if they will study harmony in
colour and take nature's combinations for their models.
It is her purpose to have her work-rooms filled with
nature's models to guide the trimmer. Where does colour
blend more boldly or harmoniously than in the wing of
the bird or butterfly, or the splendid blooms of an old-
fashioned garden ?
Miss Brown has the inherent business qualities of her
grandfather, Stewart Brown, founder of the banking-house
of Brown Brothers. Her fertile brain is ever devising
surprises, in which commercial value is never lost sight of.
It was her happy thought to serve tea at her spring open-
ing, to the delight of both out-of-town patrons and city
fashion. Brewed in Chinese fashion was the tea, and
served by Chinese boys in native silken toggery borrowed
for the occasion from the Chinese Mission. A forerunner
of the opera season is Miss Brown's display, interspersed
with tea, of evening headdress.
To her is given the distinction of practically discourag-
ing the use of aigrettes as head garniture. For this pur-
pose she incloses in every bonnet-box sent to a customer a
leaflet of the Audubon Society setting forth the cruelty
inflicted on the white heron in behalf of my lady's
caprice.
Miss Brown makes frequent business trips to Washing-
ton and various centres of fashion, where her exhibits of
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 285
hats and bonnets are a social feature. These trips rarely
fail to increase her coffers handsomely. The novelty, the
boldness of her enterprises and the far-seeing sagacity
with which she puts them into force are the marvel of her
companions in trade, among whom she exerts a salutary
and decisive influence. They recognise in her success the
result of honest, well-directed industry.
" Women often say to me now, when they see me in my
attractive and comparatively easy surroundings," said Miss
Brown to an aspirant, " * How lovely it must be to work
with all these beautiful fabrics.' I wish women could rea-
lise what it means to achieve even a moderate success.
To a woman who comes to me asking advice how to succeed
in millinery or any other trade I always say, * Learn your
trade by working with the people who have to earn their
daily bread by it. On no account go into any trade un-
less you have to/ Trade has already become too much
of a fad. There are fashionable women in it whose hus-
bands are well able to support them. Such women should
be discouraged. They do not understand business
through actual experience ; consequently they make poor
employers. They are crowding out of an overstocked
market those who really need the work. Fortunately
such employers, not working for work's sake, do not long
survive. It looked so easy to take orders and smile pleas-
antly all day long. Alas ! only the real worker knows the
cost of the trade smile."
TWO WESTERN BANKERS.
IN the social life of American cities bankers occupy an
excellent position. It frequently happens in the smaller
towns that the masculine founders of the local banks
286 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
leave the business at their death to the wives and daugh-
ters ; and there are a number of cases now in which
women bred to ease and comfort are devoting themselves
with success to the management of these institutions.
One such case is reported from Burlington, Wis., where
Mrs. Hall, widow of the founder, has long carried on the
affairs of the bank, and to the satisfaction of the deposi-
tors, it would seem, as the bank is yet in operation under
her charge. Mrs. Hall is a comparatively young woman,
and besides her banking business she leases cottages to
persons who spend the summer at Brown's Lake, a nearby
and popular resort.
Another financial institution in the same community is
the Meinhardt Bank, of which Mrs. Eliza Meinhardt is
president and Miss Edith Meinhardt is cashier. It has
ceased to be a private institution, and is now a full-fledged
State bank, having a capital of $75,000. There is one
man connected with this woman's bank, but that is because
he belongs to the family. Miss Meinhardt feels that she
is as capable of shooting a bandit as of shaving a note, for
she says, " That's in the business ! "
FROM BALLROOM TO SHOP.
One Society Girl's Solution of the Problem of Support. — Miss
Schroeder' s Dressmaking Establishment on Murray
Hill, the fashionable Quarter of New
York City.
FROM the ballroom to the workshop is, in brief, the
story of Miss Selina Richards Schroeder, the youngest
society girl in New York City to embark in business.
Years ago her father, Mr. Gilliat Schroeder, came from
Mobile, Ala., to New York, where a large fortune and a
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 287
thriving business in cotton gave him prominence among the
wealthy. Allied to the old Knickerbocker regime was her
mother, known in her girlhood as Miss Louisa Rickettes-
Lawrence. The Schroeder house was noted for its true
Southern grace and hospitality. Scarcely had Miss
Schroeder passed her teens when an unfortunate specula-
tion impoverished the family, cut short her brief career in
the ballroom, and forced her to confront the problem of
self-support.
Many avenues to occupation presented themselves, not
excluding teaching, but the latter was promptly dismissed
from consideration when the young aspirant discovered
how poorly paid are the services of her who " trains the
young idea how to shoot." More original and congenial
occupations required capital.
Being clever with the needle, Miss Schroeder, to the
surprise of her " set," finally decided to open a dressmak-
ing establishment. The spring of the first year of her
venture she made summer clothes for her friends.
Encouraged by their approval, she took one room in a
good locality in Thirtieth St. the following fall, and sent
out three hundred cards to her friends, announcing that
she had established herself in trade and awaited their
patronage. Her sole assistant was a woman who had
mastered the modiste's art in the workshop of Doucet.
Before two months had passed a second room was rented
in the same house, and her employees had increased to six
women.
So steadily has patronage since grown that recently she
has been obliged to make a third movement in pursuit of
larger quarters. Opposite to the Thirty-fifth St. entrance
to the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, No. 10 West Thirty-fifth
St., she is now modestly but substantially located, while
twenty-five women in the workroom are scarcely sufficient
288 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
to keep pace with the orders from fashionable women,
who continue to come to the first " lady " dressmaker,
because, to quote a client, " Miss Schroeder has excellent
and original taste, and has kept her prices reasonable."
Aside from taste and skill, Miss Schroeder is gifted
with exceptional business common-sense. Without these
qualities, taste and skill are of little avail in these con-
gested, competitive times. The patronage that came in
the tentative days of her venture, attracted largely by
sympathy or curiosity, could never have been retained
had she failed to satisfy taste and purses. Hers was
the intuitive knowledge of human nature which supple-
ments the preliminary training which, for instance, a
young man gets in the workshop or counting-room before
he embarks in business for himself.
It is difficult to identify so young, dainty and sprightly
a little woman as Miss Schroeder with so substantially
established a business — established solely through her
brave determination to earn her own living by the exer-
cise of the most practical, commercial gift within her
keeping. Every detail of the Schroeder dressmaking
establishment has the personal supervision of its mistress.
To each client who comes there is accorded the gracious
reception of the hostess to the guest. Miss Schroeder is
warmly interested in all other women who are struggling
for maintenance, and is in touch with the social move-
ments and vagaries of the times.
EXPERT IN FASHIONS.
"CONSULTING fashion expert "is a title explaining an
entirely new occupation for a well-informed woman.
The Countess de Montaigu fills this position in one of St,
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 289
Louis's large dry-goods establishments. There are many
women engaged in this occupation in London and Paris,
but the idea is new in the United States. The duties per-
taining to the office are numerous and well-defined. All
mail orders receive the attention of the Countess. When
a woman wants a new gown she sends with the order a
statement of her height, size, weight, complexion, colour
of hair and eyes, age and purpose for which the gown
is desired. It is the duty of the fashion expert to send
the purchaser an entirely suitable costume. Is there not
room for experts in fashions in other cities ?
AN ARTISTIC SHOPPER.
One Plucky and Cultured Woman's Success. — Mrs. Frederick
E. Parsons Creates a Business in the Decoration and
Furnishing of Houses and the Purchase
of Wardrobes.
A MILKMAN on his way to town stopped one morning,
as was his wont, to water his milk. His pail scooped up
from the brook two frogs, which he unwittingly threw into
the can.
" I'll drown," cried one frog,
"I won't," said the other ; " I'll kick."
When the milkman reached the city he lifted the lid, to
find one frog at the bottom dead, while the other floated
serenely on a little pat of butter he had kicked for him-
self.
When suddenly bereft of husband and income, and
awakened to a realisation that the support and education
of three young sons were dependent upon her, Mrs.
Frederick E. Parsons, daughter of a clergyman, wasted
29o WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
no time in idle regrets or appeals to rich relatives. Hers
was the heritage of pluck, industry and healthy, optimism.
Recalling the fable of her schooldays, she determined to
kick out of misfortune a little pat of butter for herself and
fledglings. To this end she turned to many things in
hope of earning a competency. In her girlhood she had
been an accomplished pianist. That accomplishment and
proficiency are not identical factors in the struggle for
bread she soon learned, as had many a woman before her.
With natural feeling for colour and deftness of touch, she
had always been successful in the beautifying of her own
home. Why could she not be of service to home-makers
who were denied that gift ? To the furnishing and deco-
rating of quaint and artistic houses she turned at length
her fertile brain and willing hands, and the success which
she is meeting would seem to justify the wisdom of her
choice.
Her efforts are directed particularly to the needs of
people of taste and limited means who live remote from
metropolitan markets. Last spring Mrs. Parsons made
her debut as a business woman by the issue of dainty cards
announcing that she was prepared to execute commissions
of any description or to shop for clients. Her sponsors
as a commission shopper are Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan,
No. 219 Madison Ave ; Mrs. James J. Goodwin, No. 17
West Fifty-fourth St., and Dr. John S. White, Berkeley
School, No. 20 West One Hundred and Forty-fourth St.
Mrs. Parsons purchases for her clients without charge.
No advance is made upon the regular purchasing price,
because she depends upon the commissions allowed her
by the stores for her profit. She gives estimates, and will
send samples on receipt of necessary postage. If a person
at a distance sends to Mrs. Parsons a drawing of a room
to be furnished, marking the number of doors and win-
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 291
dows, the direction from which the light comes in and the
amount of money to be expended, a design will be returned
with the whole scheme of colour arranged with artistic
ability— wall paper, pictures, photographs, proper furni-
ture, samples of carpet, curtains and draperies. The design
will cost the client nothing but the postage.
The story of the bread-earning efforts of this brave
little commission merchant, as told in The Daily Tribune,
has brought her many commissions. Not the least inter-
esting is that of a woman in Florida, who built a hand-
some residence some time ago. Two rooms were left
unfurnished because she was unable to come East or to
get through the mail material satisfactory in design,
colour and price. She sent to Mrs. Parsons the outline of
her rooms and the colour she wished to predominate in
their decoration. So satisfactorily was the commission
executed that the woman wrote profuse thanks, and stated
that her rooms were the envy of her friends, who hoped
also to avail themselves of the " lady commissioner's "
skill.
Mrs. Parsons also deals in rare old furniture, while
everything which pertains to the wardrobe of man, woman,
child or infant finds place in her order-book. From morn-
ing to night she is flitting from shop to shop, her sunny
smile and gracious manner evoking the interest and good-
will of clerk and merchant, although the latter views with
no royal favour the woman shopping commissioner, since
her purchases conflict with his mailing department and
necessitate the forfeiture of a percentage that would
otherwise be his.
Mrs. Parsons's office is in her home, a restful, artistic
apartment, at No. 66 East Seventy-seventh St. There
she receives her mail and thence she sends out samples
and has filled orders to all parts of the country, so exten-
292 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
sively has her business grown. To educate the three
boys is an incentive which keeps her to the work, how-
ever discouraging and monotonous it may become at
times.
Like the majority of well-bred women who have been
thrown without warning or preparation on their own
resources, Mrs. Parsons finds nothing except kindness
and encouragement from her companions of more pros-
perous days. " The stars shine all around us," maintains
the furnisher and decorator of quaint and artistic houses,
" even when hidden from our sight."
LESSEE OF A MUSIC HALL.
IT is reported from Chicago that that city possesses
the only woman in the country who conducts an agency
for supplying people who entertain and societies which
wish to give benefit performances with the artists for a
successful evening's amusement.
Mrs. George B. Carpenter is the widow of a man of
business, who left her a handsome competence. Shortly
after her husband's death Mrs. Carpenter leased the Cen-
tral Music Hall, in Chicago, once the most popular place
in that city for concerts and musical entertainments. She
managed the enterprise with much discretion and energy,
and added to her means a sum which ought to have proved
sufficient to maintain her in comfort the rest of her life.
She then decided to spend some time in travel and enjoy-
ment, and, going abroad with her son and daughter, she
provided the latter with such instruction, under good mas-
ters, upon the violin that Miss Carpenter became an
expert violinist.
But the foreign tour proved disastrous financially,
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 293
because, in her absence, her savings were completely
swept away, and she came home to begin life anew.
Through the advantage of possessing a wide circle of
friends, she soon found herself at the head of a successful
business in an entirely new line, which was kindred, how-
ever, to her former venture in the management of a music
hall. During the prosecution of the former enterprise
she had made the acquaintance of a large number of
leading singers and musicians, and she turned this acquaint-
ance to good account by opening an agency to supply
singers and musicians to those desiring their services.
The business now extends to other cities in the West, and
hundreds of concerts and performances have taken place
through her activities, and scores of artists have found
remunerative employment through her agency.
Mrs. Carpenter's success is another proof of the advan-
tage of social life and wide culture when a woman must
enter upon the stormy sea of business life. Those who
are entirely unknown at the outset of their business careers
are sadly handicapped. Years of endeavour may be neces-
sary before they are known or have gathered around
them a circle of helpful friends.
DAINTY NEGLIGEES.
Miss Julia W. C. Carroll's Venture.— A Shop Rich in Orig-
inal and Attractive Novelties Which Appeal to Wo-
men of Refined Tastes.
ONE of the most attractive young women in fashionable
trade in Gotham is Miss Julia Wingate Castleman Carroll,
a relative of the late Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and
daughter of a former Louisville belle, who is yet noted for
her beauty. Miss Carroll was educated at Mrs. Sylvanus
294 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Reed's school, and during the period of her tuition she
made valuable acquaintances in New York whom she finds
to-day her staunch patrons.
It was after a trip around the world that Miss Carroll,
whose handsome head is full of original ideas, decided to
embark in trade. To the fashioning of negligees, break-
fast jackets, fancy petticoats — all dainty essentials to the
well-being of the woman of means and leisure — she turned
her attention scarcely a year ago. By dint of persever-
ance she is now building up a business of rich possibilities
at No. 4 West Thirty-eighth St. When necessity forced
this courageous girl to think of a livelihood, she seriously
considered several other needle crafts, but investigation
revealed the fact that their profitableness had been over-
estimated.
A wide and intimate contact with the tastes and vaga-
ries of women of means, coupled with close observation
in other lands, enables Miss Carroll not only to produce
original work, but frequently to anticipate the most exclu-
sive Paris shops. Not infrequently patrons are heard to
remark that " we find in Miss Carroll's shop dainties not
to be seen elsewhere." Things which are original and
practical are recognised by Miss Carroll as having a good
chance of success. The conventional tea-gown or negli-
gee is often suggestive of carelessness, and this at once
detracts from dainty feminine attractiveness. Miss Car-
roll makes a specialty of the unboned waist and skirt of
simple or elaborate garniture. This combination enables
a woman to wear a home gown with becoming comfort.
At first her customers hesitated to order an unboned
waist, especially those of them inclined to embonpoint,
but when the ease and freedom of this attire were made
apparent they readily yielded.
Miss Carroll excels in original negligees. She was the
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 295
first to utilize the soft-hued Italian blankets for conver-
sion into lounging robes. Equally picturesque is the
ingenuity with which she converts Paisley and India
shawls into luxuriantly suggestive Oriental home negligees.
Her aim is to have her shop rich in things not to be seen in
the metropolitan stores. She seldom .relies on the con-
ventional importers for novelties. Interested friends, flit-
ting back and forth between this country and Paris, give
her the privilege of copying their choice French models.
In this manner she is able to obtain a rare collection of
novelties which have been selected by women of refined
taste.
Wash summer dresses and shirt waists, as well as fancy
bodices, are also a substantial part of Miss Carroll's stock
in trade. Her business is apart from the regular dress-
maker's. It is her purpose to supplement, not to rival,
the dressmaker's art.
" I never go into the street to get ideas," said Miss
Carroll, " to weave into my business. Nobody predicted
success for me, but I am gaining and am determined to
succeed. I had little idea of business when I started.
Had I known all the difficulties I would never have had
the courage to venture, in all probability."
It is only by having exclusive designs and stuffs that
the amateur woman in business can hope to succeed in
supplying or supplementing the great demands of the
metropolis. She must give the woman of fashion the
indefinable something which appeals to individual taste.
Her practised eye must be satisfied, at a glance, that
duplicates are not to be had in the shopping district.
Only a woman who recognises this truism and is suffi-
ciently fertile in inventiveness to create and supply a
demand for novelties can hope for independent busi-
ness success in New York.
296 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
How large a factor personality is in the life of the suc-
cessful shopkeeper is strikingly exemplified in Miss Car-
roll's venture. To a wholesome and refreshing personality
add the soft Southern speech and the gracious ease and
warmth of manner inseparable from the daughters of Dix-
ieland, and the riddle is solved why so many people make
more than one visit to No. 4 West Thirty-eighth St.
A REAL ESTATE OWNER IN SAN JOSE.
MRS. C. J. MARTIN is one of the busiest women in San
Jose", the " Garden City of California." She has many
social duties to perform, but finds time to transact much
practical business. Mrs. Martin owns several of the best
business blocks in San Jose", and personally superintends
such improvements as they may need, as well as the other
matters connected with their management.
She is also one of the most active workers for the Red
Cross in her State. A short time ago Mrs. Martin made
arrangements with all the street-car lines of her city by
which they were to donate all the fares for one day to the
Red Cross. When the different companies assented, each
car was placed in the care of one of the usual officers and
two women selected by the promoter of the scheme, and
the traffic was certainly most flourishing throughout that
day.
Mrs. Martin drew the plans for her summer house at
Monterey and superintended its construction. In one
corner of the drawing-room she had erected a window
overlooking the whole of Monterey Bay, the old capital
and the Del Monte gardens.
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 297
SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPHY.
Miss Floride Green's Striking Success. — An Alabama Girl's
Ingenious Development of a Branch of Photography Which
Calls not Only for Artistic Taste but for Some Other
Qualities as Well.
How readily a novelty is accepted by exclusive New
York, when it comes in the two-fold guise of artistic and
common sense, is exemplified in the career of Miss
Floride Green, the first photographer to make a specialty
of going into New York houses and taking the pictures of
children in their natural surroundings.
Miss Green is a Southern girl, a native of Alabama.
Her father, General Duff Green, of Washington, D. C.,
after losing everything in the war, migrated to Cali-
fornia, where Miss Green was educated. While teaching
school in San Francisco, she was one of the first to take
up amateur photography. An inborn love and taste for
art soon manifested itself in her camera experiments. So
artistic were the results of her studies of negro life, made
while on a visit to her Southern home, that they were
painted on slides and exhibited in Europe. So diligently
did she apply herself to the problem of light and shade,
as photography presents it, that her pictures at length
attracted the attention of artists as well as photographers.
Two years ago, encouraged by their commendation, she
came to New York, where, unknown, she has built up a
unique specialty and a prosperous business through her
own unaided efforts.
Miss Green's first house order in New York came
through four pictures exhibited in a window, which at-
tracted the attention of a society woman, the mother of a
restless child who had evaded the skill of photographers.
Patiently Miss Green worked with the trying little sub-
298 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ject, destroying negative after negative until confident
she had secured results that came up to the standard she
has set for her work. To her success in winning the con-
fidence of this timid child has been traced numerous un-
expected orders. Whenever the pictures were admired
the mother gave to her friends the address of the photog-
rapher. In this manner Miss Green's work has made its
way. She is fond of extolling the promptness of New
York society women in all matters of business, as well as
their uniform appreciation and helpfulness. Her skill is
not limited to child life, as her photographs of young wo-
men attest, while in her reproductions of men are pre-
served the power and strength of the originals. Each
subject is a study, and it is ever her aim to preserve as
far as possible the individual, the personal.
The success of her first house order in the metropolis
has gradually spread into exclusive homes, until Miss
Green's untiring patience, industry and truly artistic gifts
are now generally and substantially recognised. Her
business has grown until to-day her studio at No. 28
West Thirtieth St. occupies an entire top floor. On its
walls may be traced the rising generation of many of New
York's distinguished and wealthy families. Miss Green
has no rival in her special field, photography in the home.
It is her keen artistic appreciation and understanding
of light which have enabled her to master this most
difficult feat. Families with children to photograph at
every stage in infantile growth appreciate the advantage
of being able to summon to their homes a photographer
who is in sympathetic touch with child life. What a
relief to have the children dressed and posed in familiar
surroundings ! So interested does the household become
in the novelty of having the children's pictures taken
under their own rooftree that mother, father and grand-
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 299
parents are liable to yield to the fascination of the experi-
ment and the importunity of the children, and end in
having their own pictures taken, multiplying in this genial
way the clientele of the clever photographer.
It has become a fad for brides to summon Miss Green
to their boudoirs, in order that they may be photographed
before leaving for the church or descending to the parlour
for the marriage vow.
Women naturally feel more at ease and appreciate the
advantage of the presence of a delicately refined and
well-bred woman like Miss Green, when it comes to rob-
ing and disrobing in the search for varied photographic
effects.
Throughout the summer months Miss Green's beautiful
studio is open, and on short notice she is prepared to take
her paraphernalia to country house or seaside resort,
where many women have more leisure to give to the
photographing of themselves and their children than dur-
ing the fashionable season in town.
Miss Green believes that women are peculiarly adapted
to succeed as photographers, and that the bread-winning
possibilities of the art are encouraging, provided that the
aspirant is willing to give tireless application to the mas-
tery of every detail, which is inseparable from the best
work.
" New York," she asserts, " is no field for a woman to
experiment with photography. She must come equipped,
and come with some distinctive individuality or specialty,
if she hopes for recognition and livelihood."
DIRECTOR OF WEDDINGS.
AN ingenious and well-bred woman, whose experience
in social life is now being put to practical use, has opened
SOP WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
a new field of occupation for her sisters. It is that of
"director of weddings." This woman, realising how
much of an undertaking a wedding is, and how much
care and trouble fall upon the bride-elect, and into what a
demoralized state a wedding throws the whole household,
has taken upon herself the burden of responsibility of it
all.
She helps in the selection of the trousseau. After buy-
ing the material for the gowns and superintending their
making, she advises as to the gowns of the mother and
sisters, and dictates those of the bridesmaids. She installs
herself in the home of the bride, sometimes before the
wedding, and makes arrangements for the decorations,
and even arranges with the caterer.
Of course, she has many original ideas, and is constantly
in search of new ones, so that there may be, perhaps,
some special novel feature to each wedding. She is
exceedingly clever in carrying out ideas suggested by
others.
A STUDIO FOR COLOUR STUDY.
A Novel Enterprise. — Colour- Blindness More Common Than
Supposed. — The Business and the Pleasure of Life
Greatly Helped and Enhanced by the Study
of Colour.
IT remains for "What Women Can Earn" to make
the first announcement of the opening, at No. 37
West Twenty-second Street, in New York City, of a
studio devoted exclusively to the study of colour.
The originator and promoter of this unique enterprise,
which promises to be far-reaching in commercial effect,
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 301
is a woman of position, born and brought up in New
York City, who has given years of study to colour
artistically and scientifically considered. Mrs. E. N. Van-
derpoel is a member of the New York Water Colour Club,
and a pupil of R. Swain Gifford, William Sartain and
other leading masters. Her reasons for opening a colour
studio are founded on irrefutable facts revealed by the
scientist and acknowledged by the artist.
Among men in the civilised world one in every twenty-
five, or 4 per cent., is colour-blind. Many men grow to
mature age before they find out that they have that
defect.
Among women only one in four thousand is colour-
blind. An expert who has examined many men of defec-
tive eyesight has never yet seen a colour-blind woman.
He offers no explanation of the cause. The preponder-
ance of colour-blindness among men may be somewhat
attributed to their excessive use of tobacco and alcoholic
stimulants, which are known to produce the disease.
Not long ago a man was surprised to find he saw no red,
only gray, in the middle figure of a five spot of diamonds,
and on consulting an occulist he learned that he was
threatened with the loss of his colour sense. By reducing
the strength and quantity of tobacco used he began to
recover his normal colour vision.
This is the first reason Mrs. Vanderpoel assigns for the
study of colour, as "the study necessarily begins with an
examination of the eyes, such as applicants for places on
boats and railroads are now obliged to pass. The pro-
priety of such an examination in their case is recognised
because the safety of passengers depends upon the ability
of the engineer to know a red from a green light. Why
should it not be equally valuable for a colour-blind person
to learn of his or her defect before deciding upon taking
302 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
up some trade or profession where colour-blindness would
be a continual handicap ? "
Some time ago in a weekly paper this question was
asked : " Being a salesman in a carpet store, I have great
difficulty in distinguishing the different shades of brown.
How can I learn about colours ? " In all probability this
salesman was colour-blind without knowing it.
Florists have spoken of the growing need of colour
knowledge in their business, expressing the desire for a
school for colour study, adding that florists had no time
for the study of art, the only present means of studying
colour, save for the good but rudimentary lessons now
given in the kindergartens and some primary schools.
At the colour studio practical lessons are given in
colour. " If one will stop to think," Mrs. Vanderpoel
maintains, " how largely colour enters into the trades,
aside from the designs ; how many people spend their
lives in working on coloured materials, in weaving and
printing coloured silks, wools and cottons ; in selling
ribbons, carpets, dress and upholstery goods ; in making
wall paper and furniture, fashioning clothing and head-
gear ; in house painting and decorating, in arranging
homes, flower gardens and shop windows, the advantages
of thorough knowledge of the qualities and quantities of
contrast and harmony of colours will be seen and appre-
ciated."
The healthfulness of good colour is another reason for
its study. We are barely upon the threshold of what we
may hope to know in that line. An admirable article in
one of our monthlies, entitled " Colour in Cities," speaks
with great force of the " colour anarchy " in our streets,
which injures, as it were, our colour sense. It prevents
appreciation of good and bad colour and their effects.
Individuals are more or less sensitive to colours, but an
SOCIETY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. 303
extreme case may be cited, in which a certain shade of
purple was an irritating cause. " Let me show you what
the colour of your dress does to me," said a girl ; and,
on baring her arm, it was seen to be covered with what is
commonly called " goose flesh." It is said that one of
the most severe ordeals among the Brahmins is called the
" purple test," and that it sometimes drives the neophyte
mad.
There is surely a large field for investigation in this
direction. May not invalids be benefited by surrounding
them with helpful and cheering colour ? In European
asylums experiments have even been made on insane
patients.
The aesthetic enjoyment to be derived from the study
of colour is unquestioned. It may be asked why there is
need of study, if one has a " good eye for colour " by
nature. Is it not an analogous case to that of a person
with a good ear for music ? Does that prevent his study-
ing to improve and refine it ? Despite a good eye for
form, does not an artist spend years in drawing, to culti-
vate his natural ability ?
Music seems to have had the advantage over colour in
far more extensive study and development during the
last two or three centuries, and more general knowledge
of the main principles that govern colour harmonies
would surely add to the ease with which many people do
their work, and increase their pleasure in it, while the
discomfort many unconsciously derive from discordant
colouring would be modified if not eradicated. A visit
to this colour studio is a revelation that will scarcely fail
to invite the study of the thoughtful.
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE.
WHY NOT RAISE COWS ?
Dairy Management Is Distinctively a Woman's Work. — Mrs.
lone Van Gorder's Experience on a Ranch in Argentina. —
Sure That the Undertaking Would Be Easier
Right Here at Home.
IN coming to the United States from South America, I
am astonished to find how high is the price of butter, and
the question arises in my mind, Why do not more women
go in for dairying ? It would be mere play for a woman
in this country, with all its facilities, compared with the
task I undertook and carried out successfully for four
years in the Argentine Republic, and I think that a woman
in the United States beginning such a business could well
apply my experience.
It is a most healthful as well as interesting and possi-
ble occupation for an ambitious woman, and one she can
easily manage, and manage better than a man can, for
there is so much detail work about it — such things as
women contend with in housekeeping — things so small,
indeed, that men overlook them. In fact, speaking only
a few days since with an expert who carries on this busi-
ness, managing one of the largest creameries in Connecti-
cut, I asked the question :
" Do you think a woman could make a financial success
of the dairy business here in the United States ? "
He replied : "Yes, I do, for I know a woman — Mrs. E.
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 305
M. Jones, of Brockville, Ontario — who has made a success
of it, and many men have failed."
I had many difficulties to overcome in South America
which would not appear here. Being a city-bred Ameri-
can girl to begin with, such a life as I found myself
enjoying was, before I took up my residence in the Ar-
gentine, as sealed knowledge to me. Seeking health a
hundred miles from civilisation, out on the plains in a
forgotten corner of the Province of Entre Rios, I drifted
into the " cowgirl " life and dairy work almost without
knowing it, and soon became so interested that all else
was forgotten. Some six months ago I left it, having
gained health and an experience which I would not lose.
Starting with fifty cows as a nucleus, I had the day I
left over one thousand milch cows, besides many calves,
and I myself superintended all the dairy work.
There was a fine big butter factory, a separator-churn
and a butter-worker, run by steam — and I also learned to
run the engine — and an ice plant, which we used for chill-
ing the cream and keeping butter until shipping.
Added to this work, there was the overseeing and run-
ning of the estancia of ten thousand acres, with over four
thousand head of cattle turned loose to graze over the
plains, and the " peones " — workmen — for help must be
housed and paid, a large estancia requires the services of
a great many men and women, too. Then there are the
" rodeos," or " round-ups," which cost a considerable sum,
one way and another.
As fences are often out of repair, and gates always left
open, unless watched, the different herds belonging to
different estancias become mixed, and can only be separated
by driving all animals together and then sorting them by
the branding marks. The process of branding is also
attended with a good deal of cost, and for all these
306 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
expenses connected with the estancia I made the butter
pay the bills and a good deal over.
At an incredibly early hour in the morning I would hear
the herders cry out over the camp, and would know that
my day's work had begun. Just as soon as our great,
bright morning star, Lucero — Venus, the day star- — would
come in sight my men were out. One would gather in
the calves from their pastures, where they had been put
the night before. These were driven into their pen, a
corner fenced off in the great corral, constructed of the
most picturesquely crooked wooden posts ever seen.
In the meantime two other men would have been to
another pasture driving up the cows. When the calves
were well fastened in the cows were turned into the
corral, at one end of which was our milking place, fenced
off from the main corral and holding some fifty cows at
once. The first fifty were parted and driven in by the
herders, who were on horseback, and the milkers were
then ready to begin, stools tied on, and pail and stick in
hand. The stick is used to hit poor, hungry little calves
on the nose, for the cows were trained to give down milk
only with the calf ; this, of course, made the work double,
for we not only had to remember each cow, but each calf,
and to which cow it belonged.
Two men were stationed at a gate in the pen, and as I
would name the calves required they hunted them out and
shoved them through the gate to their mothers.
Boys employed for the purpose would at once tie the
cow's hind legs together, and as soon as the calf had
made the mother give down her milk the poor little
animal was given a sounding whack over the nose and
made to stand by and see himself robbed of his breakfast.
The boys kept cows ready ahead for the milkers. As
soon as milked the cows and calves were run through into
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 307
another corral, on the other side of the pen, and anothei
fifty rushed in, and so the work went on until all was fin-
ished.
In the meantime the milk was being carried in a cart
to the milkhouse. Each milker was paid according to the
amount he or she took out, at the rate of 10 cents paper
for fifteen litres. A litre is a very little cfver a quart, and
10 cents paper is equal to about three cents in United
States money, so that for three, or at most four, cents
the milkers turned in eighteen quarts of milk. Of course,
it was to the milker's interest to take out as much milk as
possible and to care for it, otherwise the milk would have
been left for the calf, or a cow hard to milk would
have been dried up for lack of thorough milking. Then,
also, milk would have been spilled ; but in this way every
drop meant money for the milker.
Small as this pay seems, good milkers made good wages
on a large ranch, and had the rest of the day to them-
selves. We did not care for them to do other work, as it
unfitted the hands for milking, but when they did any
extra work they were paid extra for it. They are a lazy
race, however, and were usually content to " sit out " the
rest of the day.
Milking done, the calves were then separated from the
mothers by the men on horseback and taken to their pas-
tures, where, with the exception of the newly born ones,
they stayed until the next morning, for we could milk but
once a day when handling so many cows. As soon as the
milk arrived at the factory it was at once run through the
separator and the cream taken out, and all the skim-milk
was fed to the hogs.
The usual afternoon work, after doctoring the sick
cattle, tending to some broken leg or skinning the dead,
was breaking wild cows ; for, in connection with all the
3o8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
rest, we were constantly taming wild animals, and this
made the work much harder, as a cow that was being
tamed would give a great deal of trouble and little milk
the first year. We kept men for that work, but, of course,
the cows turned over to the milkers and pronounced tame
were by no means as docile as the others, and it was
hard for the milkers to handle them.
I personally attended to the training of over five hun-
dred cows — cows that had never felt the weight of a strap,
much less of a man's hand. Then every few days round-
ups had to be put on, and all newly born calves and their
mothers were parted and sent to the corral. These, for
the first few days, gave extra trouble, as they were apt to
forget what was wanted of them, or were cross over new
calves, or in bad condition, so that each day brought forth
much extra work.
Now, if this business, under such circumstances, could
be made profitable in South America, how much more
could it be made to pay here, where one handles only
tame cattle and has every convenience to work with ?
There our shelter was the great vault above us, in rain or
shine, heat or cold. On frosty mornings the milker's
cold, stiff fingers were warmed at the cow's warm udder.
Animals also shielded the milkers from the sun or rain, as
the case might be ; shelter for the animals there was not.
I have been asked what step it is necessary for a woman
to take in establishing a dairy that is to be carried on in
a thoroughly business-like way and to a financial success.
I can only give my opinion, as based on my experience in
this work that I carried on in South America. I should
advise a woman to go into it in a small way, say, with ten
good cows, which would cost on an average $30 each. A
cow should average ten quarts of milk a day, or one
pound of butter a day. About twenty acres of good land
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 309
should be ample, although one cannot say exactly, for
years differ. If a woman wishes to take an active part,
one good man at $35 a month should be help enough. He
could attend to milking and the heavy part of butter-
making. The skim-milk would feed the small calves,
which it would be advisable to raise, and in that way
slowly increase the business. A ready market can always
be found for first-class creamery butter. With the
exception of three months in the year butter ought to
bring 35 cents a pound.
Steam-power would not really be needed, though if the
business is carried out on a moderately large scale it
pays to have every convenience. Separators, butter-work-
ers and churns can be run by hand, and even in places
where some sixty cows are kept the " deep-setting system "
is used in place of a separator.
In winter the work would grow heavy, and probably
more help would be needed, for the cows must be fed.
With so few cows, even up to one hundred and more,
milking would take place twice daily. In case of ten cows,
it would be possible to churn twice a week. Two women
could run such a business well, and do some chicken busi-
ness in with it — they would go well together.
A good, clean housekeeper and manager ought to be
particularly adapted to this work, for there is really noth-
ing hard about it.
A large barn is required, with places for milking and
feeding, also room for plenty of winter food of all kinds.
A big, airy room for milk is also necessary, and if the
" deep-set system " is used, a springhouse would be
required. One good-sized churn and butter-worker, and
a separator and a table for forming butter into required
shape, complete the equipment, There are many well-
3io WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
written books on this subject, where one can find all points
discussed and gain many helpful ideas.
A woman could by dairy work earn a fair living and
make it pay in a small way, and, taking into consideration
the interesting and healthful work, it ought to attract
more women. To a person fond of animals this work
would be of endless enjoyment, for, though the cow is gen-
erally considered a rather stupid creature, I found that
she makes a most interesting study, and is as intelligent
as the horse and quicker to learn what is required of her.
Woman's instinct is of the greatest use in dealing with
a cow, for kind treatment tells more in the profits than all
else. A cow cannot be forced to give milk, nor, under
bad treatment, will she have the milk to give. Woman is
supposed to possess endless patience, and in this business
patience will be required more than anything else, and if
continued the results will be satisfactory.
Granting a woman has a bit of land, the capital required
to open a dairy is not so great ; $1,000 should cover all
necessaries and start her well. It is a business in which
it pays to look after little things, and these a woman
would notice sooner than a man would. It is also a busi-
ness that pays at once, and after the first outlay requires
little more money. Unlike other work, which takes a
woman from her home, it can make home life possible in
every way, because it is carried on under her own " vine
and fig tree."
IONE A. VAN GORDER.
A PROSPEROUS SHEEP-RAISER.
A VIRGINIA woman who owns a small piece of land has
become interested in the business of raising sheep. She
started on a capital of $25, and with this sum she pur-
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 311
chased sheep at $3 a head. She raised as many as she
could care for on the land, disposing of the rest as soon
as they were old enough. She devoted about an hour
each day to their care, and paid a boy a small sum a
week to keep the sheds in order. She is now able after
five years to clear over $450 annually.
WOMEN FARMERS.
Some Are Born to Agriculture. — Others Have Agriculture
Thrust Upon Them, and Many Now Seek It as a
Promising and Attractive Livelihood.
MRS. VAN GORDER has told of dairy work in South
America in the preceding paper, narrated her own inter-
esting experiences, and expressed the opinion that women
should do well in this occupation in America. Whether
this opinion proceeds entirely from her own success or from
actual knowledge of what has been accomplished in Amer-
ica, it is, nevertheless, entirely correct.
The number of women who are carrying on general
farming with good sense and equally good results in this
country is remarkable. No doubt, many of these are the
widows of practical farmers, and they remain on the old
homestead and, with the aid of their sons or farm labourers,
go on with an enterprise in which they shared largely be-
fore they were left alone, and with whose previous success
they had much to do. I am told that the subscription
lists of that widely circulated newspaper The New York
Weekly Tribune show how numerous are these women in
American agriculture. They are found in every State in
the Union. Government statistics might make the actual
number a little more apparent, but the general fact is well
3i2 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
known that women farmers exist in America by the thou-
sand.
One farm manager who has shown herself competent
is Mrs. Richard King, of Texas, widow of the cattle king,
who died in 1885 in the city of Galveston. Captain Rich-
ard King was a pioneer of Texas, a scourge of outlaws, a
steamboat man, owner of the Santa Gertrudes ranch, and
an excellent manager of business affairs. He left at his
death a property of over 1,300,000 acres of land in the ex-
treme southern end of Texas, southwest of Corpus Christi,
and at one time, it is said, no less than 500,000 cattle
ranged over this estate. His widow has succeeded to the
vast interests which her husband founded, and she man-
ages them with the skill and shrewdness of a born busi-
ness woman. It does not fall to the lot of any other wo-
man in America to preside over such an agricultural estab-
lishment as this, but she does not bring to its manage-
ment a greater degree of sound ability than thousands of
other American women possess. It is not, however, of
such great enterprises that this paper is intended to
speak. The woman farmers of the country have, as a
rule, a property of not more than from 75 to 200 acres
each, and there are few cases in which their management
is not successful.
Besides those who have grown up in a farming commu-
nity, there are many other women who have undertaken
farm and dairy work without any previous acquaintance
with the business, solely as a means of support, the ven-
ture being made necessary by some incident in their fam-
ily affairs. They have taken to farming because they
love the fields, the fresh air of the country, the freedom
and the feeling of proprietorship which the possession of a
farm imparts.
Among the thousand instances which might be cited,
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 313
one will answer as indicative of the rest. Miss Anna M.
Letchworth, formerly of Buffalo, N. Y., a member of one
of the oldest and best-known families in the State, of
good position, decided after her father's death to take a
farm in her native county of Cayuga, N. Y., and convert
it into a model dairy. Three years ago she began. She
continued to make butter for only a few months. The
low price of butter and the distance of the farm from a
large city rendered butter-making unprofitable. Next,
the experiment was tried of sending cream from the farm
to the city of Auburn, about twenty miles away, but Au-
burn people failed to appreciate the rich, heavy Jersey
cream enough to pay an extra price for it. A milk route
in Auburn was then established, the milk being bottled
and sent to Auburn twice a day and delivered in her own
wagons, a really superior article. This plan might have
succeeded if honest and competent men could have been
found to serve the routes. This adventure was given up,
and now the farm sells its milk directly to the Philadelphia
Supply Company. The farm has now become a remunera-
tive property — at any rate, sufficiently so for the purposes
of support and comfort. The farm comprises two hun-
dred acres, about equally divided between rich meadow
lands in the valley of the Owasco Inlet and wooded hill-
side. The yearly overflow of the inlet gives especial fer-
tility to the bottom lands and the cows always have fine
pasturage. During the heat of July and August, the cows,
about sixty in number, are kept in darkened stables, free
from flies, where each has a basin of fresh water by its
manger and a small box of salt to taste at will, and is fed
ensilage, grain and hay in a balanced ration. The cows
are the pets of the family, and much time is spent in the
stables by all who are members of the household.
Modern methods are employed in the dairy. As soon
314 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
as drawn, the milk is taken to the milk-room, weighed, so
that a record of each cow's milk may be kept, and strained
into a Star aerator, or cooler, immediately. The animal
heat is thus quickly removed, the temperature being
reduced to about 40 degrees. This arrests the rapid in-
crease of harmful bacilli and keeps the milk sweet. Dur-
ing the intense heat of the summer of 1898 no complaint
was made of the sweetness of the milk from this dairy,
and, in fact, the president of the Philadelphia Milk Supply
Company wrote that Miss Letchworth had been able to
refute the theory that Jersey milk would not bear trans-
portation.
At the proper season a large crop of hay has to be cut
and cared for, and later the farmhands cut the corn and
fill the silo, the latter being an event of great interest and
requiring careful management. Hay and corn are the
principal crops, and little else is attempted.
During the three years of Miss Letchworth's manage-
ment it has been necessary to enlarge and repair the
barns and replace expensive machinery and implements,
which had been neglected by paid foremen, and to do a
great deal else to correct the errors of the workmen.
When once the farm is in comparative order Miss Letch-
worth expects that the enterprise will be financially suc-
cessful. For the present, her activity certainly provides
a comfortable home for herself and others, with wood,
milk and vegetables in abundance. Three workmen,
with families, live upon the place in comfortable cottages,
who have their house rent, fuel, milk and garden plots
free, in addition to their monthly wages.
A little capital is necessarily required for engaging in
dairy work, and this must be obtained either from previ-
ous earnings or in some other way. With such capital,
with good management, careful study of methods and
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 315
proper industry and economy, there seems to be no rea-
son why women should not succeed in dairy work in
America.
VIRGINIA H. HALL.
MARKET GARDENS PROFITABLE.
MARKET gardening is said to be a suitable occupation
for women. A man of experience in that line, however,
says that it should not be attempted with a capital of less
than $300 per acre to expend.
The work is heavy, but the woman who understands
the business need do little more than act as overseer.
Men can be hired to do the heavy work and the woman
may manage matters. So many women are successful in
the raising of flowers — in fact, with some of them all
green things seem to grow like magic under their touch —
that to women of this kind market gardening should
be a great pleasure, besides a source of ic^ome.
A ride out through the market gardens of Long Island
would give one who is fond of plants a desire to try her
hand at this sort of work, so inviting does it look.
The raiser of so-called garden truck is usually not a
man of high intelligence — perhaps a simple labourer who
works from a few traditions. Such men can be hired to do
the severe work, and will do it well, and a woman of brains
and energy may supply the motive power, putting in new
ideas, thereby producing greater results.
Let no woman think, however, that anything can De
accomplished in this line without first becoming fully
informed as to all the details and necessities of the under-
taking. Soil is to be studied, and drainage also should be
considered. Fertilizing is an important factor. Glass
3i6 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
houses are needed as a protection to young plants that
are raised from the seed, which must be well under way
by the early spring.
RUTH TITUS.
CASH IN COWS, PIGS, HENS.
One Woman's Experience.-— Janet E. R. Rees Gives a Humour-
ous Story of Her Real Success In Practical Agriculture.
IT so happened that I unexpectedly came into control
of a large household living in the country. The house
was pleasantly situated, the locality was delightful, the
scenery inspiring ; but no sooner did I turn into the con-
sideration of the rear portions of the place than my soul
was seized with dismay. In all directions neglect was
only too obvious. Over two acres of land presented the
wildest, most overgrown appearance ; rank grass, weeds,
briers and vines of every kind flourished at their own
sweet will, while a barn and deserted chicken-yard formed
the background of wild blackberry and raspberry bushes,
vying with each other in rampant growth, and a henhouse
was the resort of all the pigeons in the neighbourhood.
" How much," I asked the housekeeper, " does your
milk cost you a month ? "
I was almost stunned when she named the sum.
" Why," I said, " with two or three acres of land going
to waste, do you pay such prices as that for wholesale
consumption ? "
I set about making inquiries, and found that farmers
all around were prepared to furnish milk at 4 1-2 cents a
quart, making a reasonable profit. Instantly I realised
that two or three cows would soon pay far more than
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 31?
their cost where the market was sure. I investigated the
barn, which was small, but had capabilities of expansion.
Soon 1 had estimated upon stalls, an enlarged cow-yard,
etc., and, finding the old henhouse still convertible into
something respectable, I started my carpenter on the
work and soon had the satisfaction, of resting my eyes
upon converted outbuildings.
This seemed very much as if I had begun my opera-
tions at the wrong end, but such was not the case. The
purchase of the first cow was a great event, and the arri-
val of the animal threw the household into a state of
excitement. The utility man knew something of farming,
and my carpenter was an erratic little German, who knew
" everything about everything." I talked with them both,
and drove all over the country getting " points." I got a
practical gardener to look at the estate, and after much
preliminary conversation he taught me a good deal. One
portion of the grounds, south by north, he told me, would
make an excellent vegetable and flower garden.
A vision of peas and roses at once arose, and I decided
upon straight walks lined with rose trees, and squares of
cabbages, asparagus and beets. I revealed my ideas to my
prosaic adviser, who put the brakes upon my imagination
by the calm words, " Plough and harrow." This brought
me back to the consideration of expense. " Plough !
Harrow ! " How was it possible ?
" Well, you may have one team of me, ma'am, and my
man can come for a day and turn up this 'ere soil, if you
have the weeds and briers cut down first."
The said briers were as tall as I am.
" Have 'em rooted out and burned," continued my ad-
viser. "Then we'll plough up, and you turn a good load
of manure over this land, and let it be till spring. That's
the whole of it."
3i8 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
To be brief, at the cost of about $5, and an additional
$3 for manure, this was done, and done before the frosts
of late November set in, but, urged on by the zeal of the
amateur, and not content with the sensible, slow-going
counsel of experience, I decided to have the sowing done
at once. Of course, it was a failure, but, having satisfied
my zeal by sprinkling spinach seeds in furrows, I left the
question of the garden to the spring and turned my
attention to the cows. The size of the household de-
manding nearly thirty quarts of milk daily, a second
milch cow was necessary. Here came in some delight-
fully funny results of inexperience. I travelled many
miles and interviewed many farmers, and stilt more
farmers' wives, and made acquaintance with the oddest
samples of human nature, and at last became the happy
possessor of a real Jersey, which, from that day to this,
has been a joy, and whose calves have been a solid
source of satisfaction and revenue.
The barn thus auspiciously occupied, the milk question
being so far settled, my mind naturally turned to the
other live-stock. At once I concentrated it upon pigs
and chickens. A long life is required to do justice to
pigs and chickens. I read several volumes about pigs.
I consulted every farmer for miles around, and worried
all my friends. One of the latter, a very long-suffering
person, finally told me how to acquire possession of the
right thing in pigs, by writing to a man in Vermont.
The correspondence was lively, and resulted in my secur-
ing four ideal pigs, about two months old, which
travelled, doubtless with much confusion of ideas, safely
to my door.
They were beautiful little pigs. I have nothing
against them, except that they finally grew up and
became very much larger than was consistent with poetic
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 319
ideas in regard to them. However, as porkers they were
satisfactory and turned finally into succulent hams and
tender ribs, supported by sage and onions from the gar-
den.
As for chickens, nothing less than pure white Leghorns
would content me. My reading with regard to chickens
was appalling. I was ignorant enough to suppose they
always did it. I found from farm journals that some did
and some did not, but that white Leghorns were those
that always did. Indeed, one enthusiast declared that
they always laid three eggs in two days. A rapid calcu-
lation proved that the possession of white Leghorns must
lead to a fortune. It was difficult to secure them in my
part of the country, but, after much harrowing ex-
perience, I heard of some twenty-five at an average cost
of $i each, which I immediately became crazy to secure.
Many a time later I wished that my $25 had gone in
another direction, and yet, after the lapse of time, I am
by no means so sure I did badly, not because I kept pure
white Leghorns, but because they became profitable after
I ceased to keep them apart. Mixed with the other
breeds, their eggs became multitudinous, and as table pro-
viders they were excellent in the second generation. I
say this with due respect for all chicken specialists the
land over, and say it modestly, merely as a record of ex-
perience. One fashion my white Leghorns had was of
dying without preliminary effort. They would be run-
ning about, clucking and pecking, like reasonable hens,
one moment and the next would drop over dead. At
first, this agitated me profoundly, but later on I took it
calmly, and then they left off doing it. Why I have
never discovered — perhaps because they became accli-
mated. I will just put it on record that for the amateur
farmer I consider common mixed barnyard fowls the
320 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
best investment. Chickens are like children — they are
robust in proportion as they belong to common stock.
If they are too carefully reared and separated they
develop nervous troubles of their own.
In the first six months of my experiment the hen-yard
was a constant source of expense, and no profit, but after
I left off caring about them, the hens plucked up courage
and began to lay, and have continued in the path of
virtue ever since. But I no longer have pure white Leg-
horns. A most unfashionable set of feathered bipeds
supplies the needs of the household. My farm was
fairly started with three cows, six pigs and some fifty
chickens, but, ambitious still, I was drawn to further in-
vestment in the shape of an incubator, which, it is almost
needless to say, did not incubate.
An entire book might be written upon the subject of
this experience. It still brings remorse to my heart to
recall the many half-dead chickens that were the net
result of my rashly undertaking to supplant the good old
hen in her domain. It requires scientific knowledge to do
that properly, and I finally gave it up and contented my-
self with setting any hen who showed conscientious
family ambitions.
I have never had any reason to regret my somewhat
sudden undertaking. The household accounts show a
large margin in my favour. Even the sickness and death
of a favourite cow did not tip the scales against me, and
the vegetable garden yielded me seventy-five bushels of
potatoes at a time when the market price was $1.14 a
bushel, and two hundred and fifty head of celery between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, to say nothing of such
common things as cauliflowers, beets, cabbages and
brussels sprouts. It is well enough for small families to
assert that in home gardening every tomato costs a
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 321
douar, but that is because there is so much waste. Let
the household only be large enough to provide a ready
market for everything, and a vegetable garden and a
home farm are the most profitable of all enterprises,
besides being essentially healthful and amusing
JANET E. RUNTZ REES.
STOCK BREEDING.
ENGLISH women have become successful in branches of
industry not yet extensively taken up by their American
sisters.
In one of the leading societies for breeding pedigree
cattle the prizes won by women were out of all proportion
to their numbers. Although they constituted only 13 per
cent, of the members, they secured 30 per cent, of the
prizes. The women owners manage their own herds.
In fancy dog breeding women are no less successful,
and this branch pays better than cattle raising. At the
show of the Ladies' Kennel Association in London re-
cently nearly every breed of dogs was exhibited. Two of
the best modern breeds of beagles and bulldogs were
raised by women. Teams of bloodhounds and the finest
St. Bernards in the world are credited to women who
have made a study and business of the industry. One
of these women never exhibits a dog worth less than
$5,000.
Horses are not bred to any extent by women, although
there are some well-known pony breeders, but cats are a
remunerative branch of business, even if the prices are
not so good as those obtained for dogs.
In America the raising and training of fast horses by
women is coming rapidly into vogue. Mrs. W. E. D.
322 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Stokes, of New York, has entered into the business on her
own account. A few years ago she bought a farm near
Lexington, and as part of her first stock paid $10,000
for one noted horse. Since that time she has increased
her stock to such an extent that the farm promises to be
one of the best known in the country.
For the last two seasons a number of New England
women have devoted themselves to the training of their
own horses, and have also driven them in the circuit races.
Mrs. Sarah E. Crosby, of East Brewster, Mass., has an
extensive establishment at Cape Cod, where she has a
number of both driving and trotting horses. Mrs. Wood-
cock, of Ripley, Me., has always a number of horses in
training at her farm in that place.
AN AUTHORITY ON FRUIT-DRYING.
MRS. SARAH MOULTRIE, living near San Jose, Cal., is
an authority on the drying and curing of apricots and
prunes. Each season she oversees the preparing for
market of many tons of these varieties of fruit. She has
passed through all the principal changes of California,
and has done much of the work both of heart and hand
that falls to a woman in a new country. Mrs. Moultrie,
whose parents were slaveholders of Kentucky, was ac-
customed to affluence, and the long trip across the plains
was for her a hard one. This long and perilous trip filled
her with a desire to own a home, and she still possesses
the many acres bought in those early days for almost
nothing, and which, now bordering upon San Jose", have
become extremely valuable.
THE REALM OF AGRICULTURE. 323
HORTICULTURAL FIELDS.
IT has been prophesied that the next decade will find
among the leading florists and fruit-growers the names of
many women, while women also will largely compose the
rank and file of the workers in horticultural industries.
In this field, as yet, they are practically untried, for the in-
dividual success, here and there, of a few cannot be taken
as a positive result to be obtained by the many. Two
sisters in California have bought a fine tract of land, and
will put it to the use of growing rose-bushes. An Ohio
woman tells of her success in strawberry-growing. An-
other woman owns and manages a " floral colony," while
another woman in South Carolina has built up a profitable
and extensive trade in bulbs among Northern florists.
GOLDFISH "FARMING."
THE " fish ladies " is the title frequently and admiringly
bestowed upon two young girls who move constantly in
the best society circles of Auburn Park. The rearing of
goldfish is the unusual mode of breadwinning hit upon by
these young women, and they find that the occupation
proves more and more satisfactory and remunerative as
time goes on. At first the goldfish were taken from the
little parlour aquarium and put in a tub, more and more
being added gradually, until now there are a number of
large tubs in a little glass house out in the back yard and
over one thousand fish undergoing propagation, The
work of rearing the fish is pleasant and lucrative,
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS
INSURE YOUR LIFE; WHY NOT?
Women Can Reach Women Better Than Men. — An Almost
Unworked Field in Life Assurance.
OF the many avenues of work now open to women I
know of none which to a woman of tact and perseverance
affords so broad a field for enterprise as that of life insur-
ance. It is one also as yet comparatively unworked.
Men confine their soliciting almost exclusively to men.
Possibly they may think the incentive greater for a man
to insure his life, but it is more probable that the diffi-
culty of securing an audience with a woman is the chief
reason why men do not seek feminine clients.
Men can be approached in their places of business or
in their clubs, but a woman in the majority of cases must
be approached in the exclusiveness of her own home.
When one thinks of the magnitude of life insurance
companies, of their combined wealth — one company, the
Equitable Life Assurance Society, alone has in force more
than $150,000,000 in business — and that the bulk of this
vast business is carried on on the lives of men, and has been
written by men, it is easy to understand how much there
is left for women to accomplish in writing life insurance
on the lives of women.
When women have been the beneficiaries of millions of
dollars in life insurance, should they not be interested in
that which has given them such strong proofs of its real
value ? Can a widow left with a family, and having been,
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 325
through her husband's forethought, provided for by his
life insurance, do better than follow the example set by
her husband, the example by which she has profited, and
reinvest a small portion of this money in an insurance on
her own life for her children ?
In. so doing she is making provision for them should
they be deprived of her care before they are old enough
to look out for themselves ; and she is also making for
herself a safe investment, which will be returned to her
should she live. She realises the power of money, and is
just as anxious for her children's welfare as was the
husband and father. And why, then, is she not approached
on this subject ? Because men feel a delicacy in calling
on women, and the few women in the business can reach
a comparatively small number. The field, however, is
not limited to the women who have been the beneficiaries
of life insurance, by any means.
There are many women who command good salaries as
teachers, trained nurses, buyers for department stores, etc.,
to say nothing of the many who are in the business for them-
selves ; and how many of these have others depending on
them, for whom a life insurance ought to be secured ?
Others having no one dependent on them might be inter-
ested in the endowment forms of life insurance, through
which, by investing a small amount annually, during a lim-
ited number of their productive years, they save up a
certain sum of money which cannot be dissipated, but
from which they themselves derive the benefit. And there
are women of wealth who wish at their death to leave an
endowment to a church or an institution, and who would
be glad to know of the various propositions insurance
companies offer, and of the immediate settlement, unlike
the rest of the estate, settled without red tape and out of
court. So, with the many incentives women have to
326 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
prompt their insuring, many women ought to find lucrative
employment as solicitors.
It is a business, however, which requires some ability,
plenty of tact, and a lot of perseverance. One must go
about it systematically. Map out your line of work ;
think of those to whom insurance ought to appeal ; decide
which of the various plans you have would interest most
the women on whom you think of calling. The fact of
being a woman need in no way interfere with one's success
or in getting a contract with a company, for I believe
insurance companies give as liberal contracts to women
as to men.
No capital is required ; one's time is one's own, and she
who has the necessary qualifications and will devote from
six to seven hours a day to the business should reap a
handsome income. In this, as in any other calling, one
must remember that old saying, " Success depends on
knowing how long it takes to succeed."
To illustrate the interest which has been awakened
among women and the success which has attended the
efforts of some of those who have already launched out in
this new business, I might say by way of encouragement
that I have already succeeded in insuring a few of my own
sex for $100,000, and there are some women carrying life
insurance policies who spend every year as much as
$15,000 in life insurance premiums.
When the many incentives for women to insure are
noted, and it is seen that comparatively few of them in
this country of vast wealth and resources have ever been
approached on the subject, it will be recognised at a glance
how much employment this unworked field in life insur-
ance ought to give to those who are enterprising in the
pursuit of business careers.
MINNIE TUMBLESON BROWN.
Equitable Life Assurance Society, New York.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 327
THE WEST END EXCHANGE.
An Admirable Enterprise. — // Creates a Capital Market for
The Handiwork of Gentlewomen. — An Institution
Worthy of Hearty Support.
To instruct, encourage and aid women to self-support
is the object of the West End Exchange and Industrial
Union, No. 380 Amsterdam Ave., corner of Seventy-eighth
St., New York City. It was organized in March, 1896,
and incorporated under the laws of the State of New York.
The constitution and by-laws were adopted at the first
meeting held on the 24th of the same month.
The Exchange is under the control of a Board of Mana-
gers, consisting of fifteen women, who are elected by the
members of the association at the annual meeting held on
the first Monday in March. In their turn the managers
elect the president and other officers to serve during the
ensuing year.
The work of the Exchange increased rapidly from the
start, and many women have been enabled to help them-
selves, and those dependent upon their labours, by prompt
weekly payments for articles which they have consigned
to the exchange. Consignors usually find a ready sale for
their handiwork.
The work is divided into several departments, each one
under a committee appointed by the president. In the
domestic department are always to be found fresh bread
and rolls, a great variety of home-made cakes, pie, pre-
serves, candy and delicacies for the sick, all carefully pre-
pared and submitted to the Approval Committee before
being offered for sale. In the department for fancy work
may be had a good assortment of hand-painted china,
328 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
tally and menu cards, embroideries, infants' and children's
clothing, and an infinite variety of useful articles.
An employment bureau is also connected with the Ex-
change where trustworthy servants may be promptly se-
cured at the usual price paid to all employment agencies.
This department is in charge of a competent person, who
investigates the references of servants before recommend-
ing them to employers.
A free circulating library is another important adjunct
to the Exchange. It has proved a decided success. The
large population in the neighbourhood appreciates the
advantage of obtaining a good book to read upon applica-
tion to the librarian. The library is open daily from 2 until
6 o'clock. The number of applications for books increases
every month. Donations of readable books are always
acceptable. The travelling branch of the New York Free
Circulating Library kindly loaned two hundred books to
start the Exchange Library. The majority of the readers
are adults.
A bureau of information is also one of the features of
the Exchange for the benefit of people desiring the
addresses of teachers, dressmakers, hairdressers, mani-
cures, and those who pursue all other branches of wo-
man's work. The addresses of these people are registered
in a book kept for that purpose.
The rooms of the Exchange are located in the very
heart of the West Side. They are neat and cheerful in
appearance, and presided over by ladies who are kind and
courteous to all visitors.
The rules for the consignors are very simple. An
annual fee of $3 is required from all depositors, except
those who present a ticket from a member. Each member
is allowed two tickets. A commission of 10 per cent, is
charged upon all sales in every department up to $10, and
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 329
15 per cent, upon sales exceeding that amount. Each
article must be approved by the proper committee before
it is received. It is then entered upon the books of the
Exchange and disposed of to the best advantage, the
consignor always putting the price upon the work.
The Board of Managers devote much time and thought
to the work of the Exchange, which so fa'r has been most en-
couraging. When established, nearly three years ago, there
was a small debt resting upon the Exchange, which was soon
paid off, and by the careful management of the treasurer
indebtedness has never recurred. The beginning of each
month shows a good balance in the bank, notwithstanding
the fact that running expenses have almost doubled.
Increased work has necessitated another room and a
greater number of employees. The annual subscription of
$6 a year from each subscriber, the fees paid by consignors
and the 10 per cent, paid on all sales are the assured income,
which is increased by donations. Occasionally an enter-
tainment is given for the benefit of the fund.
Many of the consignors make a good income, several in
the domestic department averaging over $20 a week.
The Exchange assists a class of people who are, perhaps,
the most difficult to reach, and many a case of absolute
want among gentlewomen has been relieved through the
market opened to them by the Exchange. This truly use-
ful and practical undertaking should commend itself to
the patronage of all the residents of the West Side. It is
the only one of its kind in that part of the city, and the
benefits derived from it are widespread. The continued
success of the West End Exchange is only a question of
wider publicity.
330 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
ONE SERVANTS' AGENCY.
THE manner in which one woman in New York manages
a servants' agency is told as follows :
" My method of serving a subscriber is to have her name
an hour when she will be at my rooms. I then arrange to
have the person whom I have selected as being suitable
for her requirements ready to meet her. If the meeting
is not satisfactory, then another time is appointed and
other applicants are sent for.
" In this manner my rooms are not filled with women in
search of work. A servant is seen to much better advan-
tage alone than in a room filled with others. It is also
confusing to the employer to have many persons presented
to her at once.
" In addition to this I know what sort of individual the
employer wants, and I also know the kind of place the
applicant will most satisfactorily fill, so that my plan
seems to answer all purposes."
WOMEN AS FINANCIERS.
They Are Excellent Money-Maker s. — Some Notable Instances
of American Women Who Have Engaged in Business,
with Much Success, on Their Own Account.
I UNDERSTAND that The Tribune's work deals mainly
with the simple question of how a woman can make her
own living if she is obliged to, the qualities which are
needed in each vocation, and the pay. It may possibly
prove an inspiration to women of decided talent for
affairs, however (and there are many such), to learn of
the brilliant success of some of their sisters in the broader
field as employers of labour and operators in finance.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 331
in America, where the men take a distinct pride in
being the money-makers of the family and in providing
for their women not only all the comforts but some of the
luxuries of life, the vast majority of women can have no
opportunity to show their financial ability except in aid-
ing their husbands or male relatives to establish their
independence.
John Jacob Astor the first, who made the largest for-
tune of his time in this country, and whose descendants
unitedly are one of the three richest families here, began
life in the fur business in a little store in Water St., in
New York City, following the fashion of the small mer-
chants of the day by living, with his wife, over the store.
He was in the habit of saying that his wife was the best
business partner he ever had. By her sound advice, her
common-sense, the direct aid she gave her husband in
many ways and her economies while they were yet poor,
she exerted an important influence in laying the founda-
tion of Mr. Astor's great riches.
She was not the first shrewd and sensible wife to per-
form such a service, and certainly she has not been the
last. If a gentleman of Boston — lawyer and railroad pres-
ident— were alive to-day he would cheerfully bear testi-
mony to the help he received from his wife in the early
days when he was a poor preacher struggling to obtain
an education in the law, and when they kept chickens to
piece out their slender income until more prosperous
days should arrive, which days finally did come, thanks to
the sense and energy of both husband and wife, leaving
the family in a position of financial ease.
Mr. Elwood, of De Kalb, 111., can tell a good story of
the service rendered him by the cool common-sense of his
excellent wife in the infancy of the barbed-wire industry.
Her advice, exceedingly distasteful at first, started him in
332 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
the right direction and led to his fortune. Such stories
can be told of thousands of American wives.
But many women must operate on their own account, if
at all, and there are many notable cases where they have
done well. While statistics are not obtainable at present,
the writer is almost prepared to assert that the majority
of women do better on their own account than the major-
ity of men, in spite of the superior physical strength of
the latter.
It is well known that women have operated many canal-
boats on the Erie Canal for years and with success, and
at the boatyards on the towpath a woman who wants to
buy a new boat is rated, as a rule, a better risk than a
boatman of the masculine persuasion, if she has any
capacity at all. The builder is more likely to get his
money. Women are more conscientious ; they are saving
and thrifty, and they do not waste their earnings in
saloons and taverns.
In 1852 Mrs. Deborah Powers, of Lansingburg, N. Y.,
went into another field of labour, that of manufacturing
on her own account. Her husband had started a little
oilcloth factory in the village and had made some modest
investments in other local matters, but had by no means
made anything like a fortune. Mr. Powers died in 1852,
and Mrs. Powers took hold at once, and by her vigour of
mind and body made the family enterprises a handsome
success. Her two sons, young men, did much of the ac-
tual work, under their mother's direction, and became her
partners. With advancing years she allowed the manage-
ment to drift more and more into their hands. But until
her death, in 1891, at the age of nearly 101 years, she
remained the head of the oilcloth industry, the bank and
other enterprises of the house of Deborah Powers & Sons,
then worth $1,000,000 or more.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 333
Mrs. Lydia Bradley, of Peoria, 111., lost her husband by
death about thirty years ago. He had been an active and
successful business man, and left his wife about $200,000,
a sum sufficient to place her beyond the reach of want for
life. Many women in such circumstances would merely
have kept what was left them ; others, would have spent
it all. Mrs. Bradley was a woman of vigourous mind, and
preferred to be an active factor in affairs. Managing her
property herself, she went on with it, invested with judg-
ment as occasion arose in other lines of business, saved as
much as possible, and by careful attention to good busi-
ness principles increased her estate, until she is now one
of the most prosperous women in Illinois and considered
worth a full $1,000,000. She enjoys the warm regard of
her fellow-townsmen, and is a woman of marked philan-
thropy.
Mrs. Susanna B. Emery, the richest woman in Utah,
traces her good fortune to coolness of judgment, per-
severance and genuine business ability. When her hus-
band, A. C. Emery, died he left her some mining property,
then thought to be worth very little if anything. Mrs.
Emery refused to sell at the trifle the property would then
have brought. She kept the claims, promoted their
development, saw the yield grow to a most satisfactory
figure, and is now in the enjoyment of an income which
is said at times to amount to over $40,000 a year.
There are plenty of cases like that of Mrs. Emery.
Patience, the ability to wait a little while for results,
seems to be a virtue of women in a marked degree. The
trait tells in the long run.
The Coleman family, of Lebanon, Penn., famous for its
connection with the iron-ore industry, has produced some
exceedingly good business women, sensible, prudent and
accumulative.
334 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Mrs. Hetty Green, one of the richest of American
women, is a quaint, energetic, driving individual of strong
business qualities. At the age of thirty years she had
been for several years an assistant to her father, Mr. Rob-
inson, a shipping merchant of New Bedford, Mass., and
was well trained in the economy, industry and faithful
regard for the main chance which distinguish the New
England character. By the death of her father, in 1865,
she was left in possession of a moderate fortune. Two
years later she married Mr. Green, but she has always
managed her own affairs, and has increased her estate so
remarkably in financiering and railroad management that
the wildest tales are now afloat as to her probable riches.
No doubt half of what the newspapers say about her accu-
mulations is based on an inadequate idea of what a million
of money really means and upon the imaginations of the
writers, but that she is now worth several millions seems
to be beyond question. She is a wide-awake but careful
buyer of securities for a rise, and a good judge of a rail-
road property ; she loves business and lives in it ; she is
untiring as a worker, and saving. Her fortune is the
result mainly of business qualities of the first order, the
possession of which any man might envy.
Lotta(Miss Crabtree), long a popular actress, is as good
a business woman as an artist. Her stage career and
hard work brought her excellent earnings, and, coupled
with a saving nature, gave her the means to operate with.
By sound investments, mainly in real estate in Boston and
New York City, in growing sections, she has added to her
capital year by year, and there is every reason to believe
that Lotta may now honestly claim to be a millionaire.
There are some stories afloat of profitable speculations at
the great exchanges also.
Corinne, the actress, has also made herself a rich woman
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 335
by her talent in the dramatic field and by good invest-
ments. She has also inherited a little, but this accession
of good fortune came to one who knew how to make use
of it properly. Several other popular dramatic stars have
made considerable progress in the accumulation of wealth.
These are only a few notable cases. Others could be
recited. They are sufficient for the purposes of this essay,
however. The other side of the story — the number of
cases where women have earned and have lost, or where
they inherited and spent their patrimony — could also be
told if there were any good in so doing. Such instances
might help to point a moral, but the stories would be too
personal and the moral is obvious without. The conclu-
sion is that there seems to be no good reason in the nat-
ural order of things why a good woman, saving, careful,
clear-headed and determined to rise, cannot engage in
business and retire from active labour at the time when
ease becomes of more importance than the excitements of
a career, with a sum sufficient to make her declining years
full of comfort, and possibly even of no little luxury.
SALEGIRLS IN NEW YORK.
An Occupation Which Is Already Crowded. — The Country Girl
Advised to Stay Away From New York City. — If,
However, She Must Come, then What She
Ought and Ought Not to Do — Salaries. —
The Factories.
THE advice given by Punch to those about to marry
is such a hackneyed one that I am almost afraid to use it.
And yet I find that "Don't " just expresses what I want
to say to country girls who think about coming to New
York City for employment. All the great centres of popu-
336 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
lation, Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia an\
others, are crowded with women seeking for work, and the
competition is so keen that inexperienced and friendless
girls are overwhelmed by it, and they are beset with trials,
disappointments and snares everywhere.
In all the great stores, and, indeed, in nearly every
store, a city reference, as well as a city residence, is
required, and those who have both are selected first.
Girls who live in boarding and furnished-room houses
are looked upon with disfavour, because the moral tone of
the home is considered necessary to the welfare of young
women. Furthermore, employers know well that their
salesgirls cannot pay board and dress themselves on the
wages they receive as beginners unless they live at home.
If the salesgirl is one of a family of wage earners she
can pay a part of her salary into the general fund at home
and retain part for dress, carfares and other petty
expenses. But the girl without a city home has to depend
solely on her small salary, and the consequent worry, to
say nothing of her exposure to temptation, injures her
commercial usefulness.
Cashgirls, of whom few are employed in these latter
days, receive at the good stores when they begin work $2
a week, stockgirls, $3 to $3.50, and salesgirls, $6. At the
latter figure some experience is expected from the clerk,
which may have been in the service as cash or stock girl
in the same store or as salesgirl in another one. Pay is
advanced with the usefulness of the girl to $8 and $9.
Hours of attendance are from 8 A. M. to 6 p. M. with
three-quarters of an hour for luncheon, and a half-holiday,
one day each week, for two months of the year. Every
good house pays its employees for overtime during the
Christmas holidays, either in money, suppers, or " days
off " later.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 337
In all the principal houses the girls dress in black in
the winter and wear black skirts and shirtwaists in the
summer.
Exceptionally bright girls usually become the " head of
stock " or are given some other place of responsibility,
and have corresponding pay. Some stores employ women
for buyers, and pay them from $2,000 'to $5,000 a year,
and it is significant that they have all risen from the
ranks. They tell me in the stores that this must be so,
and that no woman, no matter what her general educa-
tion and ability may be, can hope to obtain such a place
unless she has graduated from behind the counter, where
she gained her practical experience. Among the best-
paying stores the health of the employees is given special
attention, but Wanamaker, I believe, stands alone in hav-
ing a trained nurse constantly at the store to attend them.
The dry-goods houses usually take care of their girls
through the benefit funds started in the stores, the money
for which is obtained from fines paid by the tardy work-
ers and from the small sums they themselves pay in.
For a girl who is physically strong and intelligent there
is a chance of employment in large cities in the factories.
One such institution in New York City alone employs
twenty-five hundred girls, and the conditions are usually
good. I am not speaking of the " sweat-shops," of course.
Factory girls have one advantage — they are not obliged
to spend their money for dress, nor are they exposed to
the temptations caused by seeing money expended for
frivolous things, which, after a while, actually look to the
salesgirl as though they were necessities.
The earnings of a worker in the factories depend upon
her own skill. Indeed, $10 and $12 a week is not at all
unusual pay. It is true, however, that factories do not
run steadily the whole year round. The earnings of
338 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
feather curlers and artificial flower makers are better than
those paid in some other industries, but I do not advise a
girl to work as either, because those trades are apt to
develop certain forms of disease. Most operatives are
paid by the piece, so that earnings often run higher than
the scale just mentioned,
Ferris's factory, in Newark, N. J., has an excellent
luncheon-room for the girls, and provides overshoes and
umbrellas for them, and similarly kind treatment is
accorded in many of the New York City factories.
Every working girl should save some amount from her
earnings every week. The Penny Provident Fund will
accept the smallest sum, and some of the savings banks
remain open until 7 or 7:30 p. M. for the especial conve-
nience of working people.
A girl might well avail herself also of some of the bene-
fit societies which are so numerous in New York and
other large cities. The New York Association of Work-
ing Girls' Societies has a benefit fund, whereby a girl will
receive during illness $8 a week for six consecutive weeks
in any year, by paying into the fund 40 cents a month.
For 25 cents she will receive $5 a week, and for 15 cents
$3 weekly.
By joining one of the clubs, either of this society or the
Young Women's Christian Association, or of similar
organizations, the working girl will have a social life, not
otherwise open to her, and an opportunity for mental and
spiritual improvement.
If a country girl must come to New York, let her go to
the women's dressing-rooms of the railroad station when
she arrives and read the addresses of Christian homes
which she will find on the walls. If she writes to the
Manhattan East Side Mission, No. 416 East Twenty-sixth
St., a woman will meet her, but if she does not do this,
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 339
and she arrives in the city late, she would better spend
the night in the waiting room, rather than go into the
streets alone and ignorant of her way. In Philadelphia the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union looks after young
travellers, and in Boston the Travellers' Aid Society.
A girl should not enter into conversation with any
stranger, whether man or woman, and she would better
avoid asking for information from hackmen. The police-
man on duty inside of the station will always be willing
to direct her.
The matron at St. Bartholomew's Girls' Club House,
No. 136 East Forty-seventh St., and the Episcopal Sisters
at the Shelter for Respectable Girls, No. 241 West Four-
teenth St., will be glad to welcome strangers. The
Women's Lodging House at No. 6 Rivington St., is a cheap
and respectable place, which may also safely be recom-
mended.
But, of course, these are only temporary stopping
places. Permanent boarding places should be found as
soon as possible. The best way is to apply at the board
directory of the Young Women's Christian Association,
No. 7 East Fifteenth St.
Of course, our country girl must not come to town
unless she has enough money to tide her over for at least
two months. During that time she can improve her
acquaintance with the Christian women whom she will
meet at the homes and clubs, and through them, and inde-
pendent of them, but with their advice^ she will seek for
a place in the great workrooms of the city.
GRACE H. DODGE.
WAGES OF SALESGIRLS.
THERE is little to add to the paper of Miss Dodge c.-u
340 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
the subject of salesgirls, save the compensation which is
paid in other cities.
Voluminous information on this branch of business has
been collected by those interested in the welfare of labour.
One of the most important factors in keeping the wages
of salesgirls down to their present low standard is the fact
that no special technical education is required, and the
number of those who must go to work without such an
education is very large. Another factor is the intense
competition between the department stores, which compels
them to crowd the payrolls down to the lowest possible
minimum. And such stores set the fashion largely for the
smaller ones.
Leaving the cashgirls and young children out of the
question, the standard minimum rate of wages seems to
be $4 and $5 a week in almost every large city. There
are cases where it is less, but the rule is as stated. From
the figures named the rate of weekly earnings of the girls
ranges upward to $8 and $10 a week for those who show
some business alertness and tact. Girls or women in the
more important positions are given from $12 to $15, and
even as high as $18, $20 and $25 a week. The latter
usually have the oversight of other girls or of a depart-
ment.
ADVERTISEMENT WRITING.
The Art of Catching the Public Eye. — Good, Sound Sense and
a Knowledge of the Business World Are the
Chief Essentials.
"PROMISE, large promise," said Samuel Johnson, "is
the soul of an advertisement."
So rapidly has advertising developed in the last ten
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 341
years, so generally is it now recognised as a powerful fac-
tor in the business world, that it is not strange that alert
woman is turning her attention in that direction, with the
query : " Am I qualified to write advertisements ? What
are the possibilities? Is there money in it for me ? "
More than one business house in the United States em-
ploys a man to write its advertisements at a salary much
larger than that which the State of New York pays its
Governor. Why may not the right women command like
pay for like skill ?
" To write a striking advertisement, " to quote an ex-
pert, " is a distinctive talent. It is not likely to lie within
the province of the essayist, the critic, the story-teller
or the reviewer, though an erroneous impression prevails
that any one who can handle a facile pen can write an ad-
vertisement. * Try it, ' urges the man whose columns in
the morning papers blockade entrance to his employer's
store before the opening hour. Intuitive knowledge of
human nature and intimate acquaintance with the business
to be exploited are almost imperative to the writer of ad-
vertisements ambitious of permanant success."
The experience of Miss Kate E. Griswold, of Boston,
Mass., is interesting. She is the editor and publisher of
Profitable Advertising, a monthly journal for advertisers.
Miss Griswold was born in West Hartford, Conn., and
passed her early girlhood there. She was educated in the
high school of that place, and took a finishing course at
Woodside, a school for young women in Hartford. At
the age of sixteen she entered the office of The Poultry
World, at Hartford, where she handled much of the corre-
spondence pertaining to the advertising department of
that paper. Later she worked in the office of the Na-
tional Trotting Association, where her close application re-
sulted in nervous prostration, which compelled her to
342 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
retire from the business world for some time. When her
health recovered she became business manager of The
Hartford City Mission Record, which place she held for five
years. After this she was engaged by the C. F. David
Advertising Agency of Boston, to edit Profitable Adver-
tising. The agency could not make a success of the pub-
lication, and finally it was turned over to Miss Griswold
as a failure. She would not give up, however, and after
suffering many a hard knock and crossing many rough
places she brought it to the front, and all this in the face
of the fact that there were several well-established jour-
nals of the same character in the field prior to the time
she entered it.
Miss Griswold says : " There are many phases in the
advertising business — many and varied places which can
be and are being filled advantageously by both men and
women. But in this, as in other lines of business, results
count. In order to bring the science of advertising to bear
upon a certain line of business in such a manner as to turn
the pockets of the reading public inside out, ability to speak
or to write the ' king's English ' to perfection, sketch an
attractive illustrative feature or arrange a pleasing type
display are not as essential as might be supposed to the
man or woman occupying the place of advertisement
writer, designer, agent or solicitor. All these things are
important in their way. The chief essential is good,
sound business sense, a knowledge of the business to be
exploited and of the condition of the market, and such a
fund of general information pertaining to the business
world as can only be acquired through actual experience
and close contact with it. Before one can reach the point
where her services are really valuable, in a commercial
sense, the student must climb many rounds of the ladder
and pass through a variety of experiences."
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 343
Miss Griswold advises a young woman who contemplates
entering the advertising field to connect herself with the
advertising department of some large manufacturing or
retail establishment, or with a recognised agency, and
learn the "ins and outs" of the business. If she is bright
she will readily acquire a knowledge which will make her
services of value.
" The men and women who are succeeding to-day in the
advertising business," Miss Griswold declares, "are those
who have kept * everlastingly at it,' and have added good
judgment to close application."
Miss Annie Partlan, who has attained success in New
York, once made the remark that when she commenced
the work she was self-conscious, then she became semi-
conscious, and lastly, unconscious. While this was not
literally true, it was a terse way of saying a great deal.
Miss Partlan was born in Kingston, N. Y., a little less
than twenty-five years ago. She was one of a large fam-
ily of children. Before she left school she developed a
strong tendency toward writing, and while at home she
wrote a good deal for various local papers, her subjects
embracing nearly everything from news items to poetry.
Her first city experience was with a Brooklyn dry-goods
house, where she assisted with the office work and book-
keeping. She also had a small portion of the advertising
work to do. But it was fully a year before the idea of
entering the advertising field occurred to her and then she
felt incapable of doing so.
For four years longer she held similar places with dif-
ferent firms, and for some time she had entire charge of the
mail-order correspondence of a large mail-order house in
New York. During this time the advertising idea grew
upon her. While she felt great timidity about attempting
the work, she lost no opportunity of studying the various
344 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
kinds of advertising. At last, convinced that she could
make a success in this line, she resigned her place with
the mail-order house and began work as a special writer
upon a New York Sunday newspaper.
At that time this seemed to her to be the best step
toward the accomplishment of her ambition, but the work
soon became difficult and exceedingly distasteful, and she
gave it up, resolved at any cost to gain a foothold in
advertising work. Thus she entered the field, unknown
and with absolutely nothing to depend upon excepting
her own energy and perseverance. For several months her
path seemed rougher at every turn. Her friends told her
that she was following a rainbow, and assured her that
ultimately she would fail. This made her more deter-
mined and independent. She would not ask for help,
though often she felt the need of it. She worked out her
ideas for different advertisers, but they did not sell, and
her expenses were defrayed with the proceeds of the sales
of various novelties, which she was forced to peddle.
She achieved her first success in the spring of 1898,
when she sold to the Siegel-Cooper Company an idea for
a street-car card. Miss Partlan is now associated with
the advertising firm of Gillam & Shaughnessy, and has
complete charge of the advertising of Arnheim, the tailor.
Miss Partlan enjoys the distinction of being the only
woman in the advertising business who does the
whole work from start to finish. She writes the adver-
tisements, plans the illustrations and buys the advertising
space — in fact, to use her own words, " takes care of it all."
Miss Edith R. Gerry is assistant writer of advertising
for the Siegel-Cooper Company. She was born in Worces-
ter, Mass., and went to New York with her parents before
she had finished her education. After leaving school she
studied stenography and typewriting, and entered the
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 345
office of a well-known advertising agent and writer. At
that time the business was small, but it grew, and Miss
Gerry grew with it. When she entered the office she had
no idea of adopting advertising as a vocation, but she had
firmly resolved to make a success of anything that she
undertook.
For three years she remained with the advertising agen-
cy, yet it was fully a year and a half before she attempted
the writing of advertising matter, and then she was placed
in charge of the syndicate work. This department soon
grew from eight patrons to four thousand, and Miss Gerry
had advertisements to prepare for some thirty different
lines of business each week. Aside from writing the adver-
tisements themselves she suggested ideas for the illustra-
tions, and this experience was of great value to her, for it
brought her into touch with nearly every salable thing
under the sun. Yet the work was confining, and several
times she found herself on the verge of nervous prostra-
tion.
From this place she went to the Wanamaker store as
assistant writer. After this she was advertising manager
for a large medical house in Springfield, Mass., and for a
short time managed the shredded-wheat advertising at
Worcester, Mass. From that place she went to the one
that she now holds. Miss Gerry is only twenty-three,
and is considered one of the brightest young women in
the field.
A woman writes the advertisements and has complete
charge of that department in one of the large retail dry-
goods houses in New York City. She entered the service
of the firm as cashgirl, and has risen through every place
to her present responsibility.
The advertising of The Drygoods Economist is
largely the work of Miss Pomeroy, and for several years
346 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
the brightest writing of a leading advertising agency of
New York was done by a woman, whose placards in the
windows of a cloak house in the West, in which she was
employed as saleswoman, attracted the agency, which
brought her East. There is scarcely a large dealer in
woman's apparel who does not now employ a woman in
some department of its advertising. A well-known jew-
elry house is said to pay a woman $40 a week for verses
proclaiming the charm of its novelties. Most of the win-
ners of prizes offered for advertisements are women.
" When I was greatly in need of money," said a busy
woman, " it occurred to me that I might earn some by
writing novel advertisements. I wrote to a florist and
seedsman about the matter. The idea struck him favour-
ably at once, and he sent me a brief outline of work to be
done. There was to be some mention of his gardens as a
whole, then of his annual publication, and of a number of
special flowers and shrubs. For example, he desired par-
ticular reference to a plant which he called ' The Caprice.'
I sent him three verses, the first of which was :
" Now, what is this floral * Caprice,' you say ?
Why, the flowers met on a summer's day,
And they cried, * We are tired of blooming for aye,
Each rosy season the same old way,
So we'll see what we can do.'
" The poem related how each flower gave of its beauty
to dower a peerless rose, of which I made a careful
description. The advertisements were of great variety, in
prose and verse, and comprised puns and parodies,
humourous and sentimental matter. The florist purchased
them all, and sent them out in circulars to his customers."
Miss Helen Hollister writes advertisements for D.
McCarthy & Sons, of Syracuse, and there are one or two
women writers in Buffalo.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 347
Women can succeed in advertising, but not all women
any more than all men. The salaries paid for the work
range from $15 a week up to $1,000 a month. A few
advertising places pay higher than that, but they require
many qualifications not found in the average writer.
DRESSING STORE WINDOWS.
AT the present time the dressing or trimming of the
windows of the large department stores is an important
item in the business of the firm. Really good window-
trimmers are not plentiful, and the demand largely exceeds
the supply. Some of the large houses employ expert
women trimmers, paying them a good salary. Other
houses rely upon the chances of picking up a good worker
in the busy season and depending upon some makeshift
for the dull times.
" It is rather a surprising fact that this business of
window-dressing is almost entirely in the hands of men,"
said one of these women window-dressers to a Tribune
reporter. " It would seem that this was a branch in which
women might do themselves credit and reap a pecuniary
profit. Nearly all of the window displays of these large
establishments contain articles that appeal more directly
to the feminine eye, and a woman possessing any artistic
taste ought to be able to dress windows fully as well as a
man can, if not better."
This fashion of window display is not altogether con-
fined to the large drygoods palaces. The smaller stores
have caught the idea, and the windows of some of these
make most creditable displays. A look at the windows of
the large establishments shows the prevalence of the one-
item idea, and these form a part in some houses of the
advertised sales of certain lines of goods.
348 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
This field of work is a large one. The innumerable
windows of the palatial stores of every large city certainly
furnish a sufficient number of object-lessons for the begin-
ner to start with, and it only needs the clever fingers and
ingenious brains of some women to render the window
shows even more attractive than they are.
As for salaries, it may be said that the men receive all
the way from $9 to $30 a week compensation in Philadel-
phia, Boston, Chicago and New York. A genuine artist
in colour and form effects is sure to receive special con-
sideration in the matter of salary. Women so seldom
receive as large a compensation for the same work as men
that their salaries as window-dressers do not range higher
than $10, $15 or $20. But if their work serves definitely
to advertise the store and bring curious crowds to the
window, they may ask anything in reason and they will
get it.
CLEVER LAW-BOOK AGENTS.
A DOZEN or more large publishing houses are kept
busy working on new law books, which must be sold.
Nearly all these publishing houses employ bright, quick-
witted women to do the selling. Some of them are young
and attractive, but the majority are middle-aged women
who have had long experience and possess good know-
ledge of human nature. These saleswomen are familiar
with law and practice ; are clever in telling a good story,
with just the right amount of flattery thrown in to enable
them to induce a man to take a subscription for a lot of
books that, perhaps, he will never use. These women
learn about the classes at the various law schools, and
usually know, where they will be successful in their sales
before they start out.
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 349
EQUESTRIANISM.
An Unusual Profession for a Woman. — Children Learn
Quicker From a Woman Instructor. — The Labour Is
Hard, but Has Its Compensations.
PRACTICAL and instructive directions concerning the
equestrian art should give such help as a girl would find
useful in preparing herself to become a teacher in riding.
The time and money required to fit herself for the work
and the outlook when proficiency is attained should be
dwelt upon. I am pleased to attempt the task of offering
information on this subject. At the same time I am not
convinced of the especial helpfulness of such an article to
a woman or girl who might wish to take up this calling.
There are many things to be considered if one wishes
to become a successful instructor in a valuable accom-
plishment which is also one of the most difficult to master.
I am of the opinion that, like teachers, riders are born,
not made, and that the faculty for understanding a horse
must be to a certain degree inherited by any girl who
becomes a thorough horsewoman.
Every child, whether boy or girl, should be taught to
ride in early childhood, for not only does the exercise
improve the bodily health and excite a proper activity of
mind, with an increase of will power, but it gives an excel-
lent training as a preparation for meeting emergencies.
Formerly every one rode ; for, when the only means of
communication between towns was by wheel conveyances
or horseback riding, timidity was rarely found to prevent
a girl or woman from " mounting her pillion " behind
father or husband and starting on a journey of hours or
even days. In some parts of the world even the beggars
still ride their own horses.
350 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
Now riding schools are so organized that the expense
of taking lessons is not exceedingly great, and a much
larger number may profit by the opportunity to learn.
A mistake that many teachers make is to assure the
pupil that she may attain proficiency in a few lessons.
Horsemanship cannot be so readily acquired. . Moreover,
to be a good rider is one thing and to be a good teacher
is altogether different. Perfect health is one of the points
to consider, good temper, patience, a love for animals and
a great deal of courage are qualities absolutely necessary.
In any case, there are many difficulties to contend with.
As a teacher, one is obliged to come in contact with much
that is rough and repulsive to a refined woman. One has
to be careful not to become, under such associations,
rough and " horsey," and thereby unfit to teach women
and children.
Much tact is needed to get on with the many tempera-
ments, and there must be no "bluff" about what you
know in regard to a horse and his management. You
must also be confident concerning your knowledge, and
be able to inspire others with confidence in you.
In regard to a method, I should say the English way
of riding is the best, as it makes one an all-around horse-
woman, and gives the rider a hunting seat, besides fitting
her to master all kinds of horses, which, as a teacher, she
is obliged to ride.
I don't think any woman could become a teacher
through self-training ; yet it is possible that if a girl had
begun to ride as early as ten years of age, under compe-
tent instruction, and if, while her general education was
progressing, she gave as much time and attention to this
as to any other accomplishment — music, language, fence-
ing or gymnastics — she would find herself in ten years
more a good rider. Even then she might not be able to
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 351
impart her knowledge to others, and certainly could not
do so without training for it, unless she had a general
adaptability for teaching.
The expense of acquiring this knowledge is no greater
than is incurred in gaining any other accomplishment.
There have been in the past and there are at present a
few women teachers of horsemanship. I believe the first
instructor in the art of riding was Mrs. Dickel, whose sons
are conductors of riding schools. There are now only
four or five who follow this calling.
To make it a financial success such long hours of hard
work are required that few women who undertake it are
able to make more than a living. Eight hours in the sad-
dle every working day of the year takes the romance out
of riding even a good horse. To do the work at all the
teacher has to have absolutely sound health, and nerves
are out of the question. All social life must be given up
for this exciting labour.
But this, too, has its compensations, for you become so
engrossed in the progress of your pupils and in preventing
accidents while they are in the rudimentary stage of learn-
ing that you find it a good deal like bringing up a large
family. Then again, much of the work is done in the
open air, with the noblest of dumb brutes for compan-
ions ; there is a great deal of vitality gained from their
strength, and herein bicycles can never take the place of
horses, even for the exercise that is in some respects sim-
ilar to riding.
To sum up the situation : With a perfect knowledge of
horsemanship, perfect health, patience and courage, a
woman can earn a living in teaching riding by hard work.
The want of experience would be a drawback to a young
girl's undertaking to give instruction, and she assumes a
great responsibility.
352 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
In teaching children infinite pains must be taken, and
the teacher should be most conscientious.
Saddles, habits and all riding paraphernalia are expen-
sive, and should always be of the best quality that can be
found.
I should like to see a woman teacher in every school,
for I believe that women and children would and do
learn of such a teacher with greater comfort to themselves
than when the instructor is a man. The different natures
met with require different treatment, and this women are
patient in giving. This does not mean that there should
be any relaxing of the rules which a horsewoman must go
by. First, attention must be given to understanding the
horse's motion and action, and then the position in the
saddle must be considered. The rider must sit squarely,
so that her hips are at right angles with the horse's spine,
the right knee resting against the pommel and the leg
hanging over, the toe pointed down. The left thigh is
held close to the saddle flap, the left foot in the stirrup so
that the ball presses it firmly, and the heel droops a trifle.
Hands should be held close together, though their posi-
tion may be altered by circumstances.
Altogether, as an exercise, accomplishment and enjoy-
ment, nothing can take the place of horseback riding, as
all concur in acknowledging who have ever become at all
expert in it.
EMILY S. BEACH.
PROFESSIONAL SHOPPERS.
IN several large cities of the United States a number of
keen and alert women find profitable occupation in
buying for their friends out of town a list of the articles
TRADE AND BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS. 353
at the retail stores which the principal would otherwise
have had to make a trip to the city to obtain.
The shopper performs all the labour of going from store
to store until the desired goods are found. She causes
the goods to be shipped to the actual purchaser, and
receives a commission of 5 or 6 per cent, from the stores
and 5 per cent, more from the principal.
The simple labour of shopping is distasteful to many
women, and they are glad to leave the task to some one
else, and to pay a commission for the accommodation.
On the other hand, the competition between the leading
retail stores is so strong that they are glad to pay some-
thing to any energetic woman who can turn business in
their direction. Both parties are benefited, and the inter-
mediary (the shopper) derives her own advantage from
the transaction.
An occupation related to shopping is that of guide.
The services of a professional guide are more generally
employed abroad than in America. Middle-aged women
with a knowledge of languages, a kindly appearance, some
little worldly wisdom and thorough familiarity with the
city (Berlin, Paris or whatever the capital may be) are an
important aid to the stranger and the occasional traveller.
The income from shopping depends entirely on the vol-
ume of the business transacted. The commission is fixed
by custom. In some cases, where the purchases are large,
the principal may pay a smaller commission than 5 per
cent.
See Also " Society Women in Business."
WORKERS IN GLASS.
IN the glassware industry in America there is not much
opportunity for educated women. The occupations sup-
354 WHAT WOMEN CAN EARN.
plied to such women as choose to work in the glass facto-
ries are those of buffers, packers, blowers, dusters, solder-
ers, sorters, cleaners, grinders, etc., mainly.
The wages paid in these branches of the work which
are largely suitable for girls vary between $3 to $6 a week.
Forewomen are necessary, when many girls are employed,
and $9 to $12 is the usual weekly salary. Decorators
ordinarily get from $4 to $7 a week, but this refers to
ordinary work. For really artistic work, in the decoration
of fine wear, the pay is considerably higher, but there is
not much of this work for women in America at present.
Women make excellent operatives in the shops where
frail glassware must be handled and packed.
Abroad, in some of the glass factories, women are often
employed in large numbers, especially in Venice and
Murano, cities which have been the homes of the glass-
blower for ages. One of the prettiest sights in Venice
is to be seen in the shops where beads, bugles, imitation
pearls and other glass ornaments are made, and in which
scores of girls are employed.
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